Boulevard des assassins (1982)

Write, write again. But Daniel Salmon is in no state to find inspiration. He accepts his publisher’s offer to go to the Mediterranean coast. Another writer’s apartment is currently empty, and he will have plenty of time to make use of it and recover his ideas. So Salmon arrives in Lourciez. He immediately gets a strange feeling there. An old woman in his building was murdered shortly before, and he receives a strange phone call from a certain Régine—a call actually meant for the owner of his apartment. Intrigued, Salmon sets out to find Régine, unaware that his actions have immediately drawn the attention of a number of people in town. Among them is Charles Vallorba, the mayor, who is surrounded by a whole gang that knows about some of his activities, which he would rather not have revealed. Salmon remains on his guard, all the more because he is convinced of the mayor’s wrongdoing. Besides, Régine has been found dead, and the local police commissioner is afflicted by a curious inertia. Hélène Mariani, the owner of a fashion shop, is then tasked by this group with finding out who Salmon is and what he wants. It is thanks to Hélène’s mother, his neighbor across the landing, and to Hélène’s daughter that Salmon begins to understand: the old woman in the building owned land coveted by the mayor for a property development project. Salmon then writes an article for a newspaper, provoking a reaction from Vallorba, who will stop at nothing—not even his son’s suicide alongside Hélène’s daughter, both of them disgusted by so much depravity. Hélène knows everything but refuses to give Salmon her testimony. He can now rely only on Francine, Vallorba’s wife. Francine alone can help him. But the mayor is keeping watch. And Salmon will pay with his life.