LA MARIÉE DE CORAIL

DS JOAQUIN MORALÈS IS BACK IN THIS LONG- AWAITED SEQUEL TO THE CRITICALLY ACCLAIMED
LITERARY CRIME NOVEL WE WERE THE SALT OF THE SEA.

Angel's heart skips a beat as the anchor chain clatters over the edge of her lobster trawler. It's caught on something. But what? Something yanks at her ankle and pulls her off her feet. Her wedding dress rides up around her waist as she feels her body being dragged away. She feels the cold air biting into her bare thighs. Angel draws a sharp breath as it dawns on her that someone's trying to kill her. When Lieutenant Marlène Forest ropes Detective Sergeant Joaquin Moralès in to investigate the disappearance of a woman from her lobster trawler, he's reluctant to get involved. He has enough on his plate dealing with his eldest son, who's just turned up here on the Gaspé Peninsula from Montreal, blind drunk. Angel's body is found two days later. Ever present in the background is the beautiful yet merciless sea, slowly slipping into her winter cloak with every rising autumn tide. DS Moralès soon finds out for himself that “the women of the sea leave no one indifferent,” as he comes to see that investigations like these have a way of drawing you in, whether you like it or not.

EXCERPT
That morning, when he saw Angel Roberts floating in the water, her arms wide open to the sky, her hair and her dress billowing around her, DS Joaquin Moralès could feel his heart pounding in his chest. He stayed there for a while, kneeling over her, wondering why his heart was beating that way. Cyrille Bernard had already waxed on about him being the kind of man who'll easily get carried out to sea, the kind who wants to feel the infinite possibility of world in the palm of his hand. Sitting in the bay window of his living room, Moralès had often wondered what the old fisherman meant. Tonight, staring at a soundless screen, it finally dawned on him what Cyrille was trying to tell him.
What are you supposed to say to your 30-year-old son? He hesitated. A moment too long. He took a deep breath, only to discover he had lost his voice. Again. Time to take a sip of coffee, he thought.

Roxanne Bouchard is a writer and teacher of literature. She has published seven novels and received a number of awards, including the 2005 Robert-Cliche Award and the 2007 Archambault Newcomer's Award. Her literary crime novel Nous étions le sel de la mer (We Were the Salt of the Sea) was published by VLB éditeur and shortlisted for the France-Quebec Award in 2015. The English translation was published by Orenda Books in 2018 and shortlisted for the 2019 Scott Moncrieff Prize.