France, 1976.
Julien Baptiste is a young, smart but inexperienced detective, sent to work in Clermiers, a small town in northern France riddled with corruption. A girl goes missing, presumed dead after bloody clothes are found close to an illicit party near an abandoned chateau. Baptiste believes he’s nailed the culprit, the eccentric Gilles Mailloux.
When he appears in court, the public call for the guillotine – and that’s the sentence Mailloux gets. But as Mailloux awaits an appeal for clemency, he asks to see Baptiste, who’s still haunted by the fact the girl’s body remains missing. As the clock ticks towards execution hour, Baptiste begins to realise he may have made a terrible mistake…
Ten years ago I was adapting The Killing , turning a stunning TV series into books that were based on the telly dramas, but not quite the same. I loved that challenge, and I know lots of readers around the world did too.
And today… I’m delighted to be able to tell you about the secret project I’ve been working on all year. Not an adaptation of an existing TV series, but a quite unique take on an equally unique character from the screen.
Back in December last year I got a call out of the blue from Sam Eades of Orion. How would I like to come up with an original novel featuring Julien Baptiste, the French detective from The Missing and his own eponymous TV series? But not the Baptiste we know. A Julien Baptiste forty years younger, facing the case that would go to make the character we saw on screen played so memorably by Tchéky Karyo? A prequel built from scratch, mine to pluck out of thin air.
Who’s going to say no to an offer like that?
I spent some time reading about the France of the 1970s, making the shocking discovery that the last man went to the guillotine in 1977. Then I sat down and over a few days tapped out the rough outline for a story in which a young Julien Baptiste is responsible for the capture of a man later convicted of the abduction and murder of a young girl. To Baptiste’s dismay, he’s condemned not to life imprisonment, but to the guillotine. On the day he’s due to die he asks to see Baptiste. They talk… and our earnest young detective begins to realise he may be sending an innocent man to the scaffold.
Every story needs a ‘what if?’ and there’s the one behind Baptiste: The Blade Must Fall. It will be out from Orion in paperback, ebook and audio (narrated by Tchéky himself) this November. If you’re lucky enough to be at the Theakstons Crime Festival in Harrogate next week you should find the opening chapter there for you to read (and yes I’ll happily sign the samplers as well as my Italian books from Canongate which should be there too).
I’ll have more to say about this book in the months ahead so stay tuned. And before anyone asks … no, this does not mean I’m abandoning Italy for France. It’s an added bonus for me after the launch of The Borgia Portrait on August 1 and the earlier release of The Medici Murders in paperback.
Here’s the official press release…
Orion acquires official prequel to hit TV series Baptiste
Orion Fiction Publisher Sam Eades has acquired an official prequel novel to the hit TV series Baptiste, written by award-winning crime writer David Hewson. The thriller follows iconic French detective Julien Baptiste as a young man in rural France, grappling with a shocking missing person case that will shape him into the man viewers know and love from the television series. Baptiste: The Blade Must Fall will be published in paperback, ebook and audio in November 2023.
From Two Brothers Pictures The Missing and Baptiste are award-winning global television brands with proven longevity. The Missing has been licensed in 144 countries, and the opening series had over 7 million viewers. The Missing won the Golden Nymph Award for Best Mini-Series and Best Drama or One-Off Serial at the Televisual Bulldog Award. The spin-off series Baptiste has been licensed in 132 countries, with global sales to Amazon, Netflix, Starz and Disney.
In Baptiste: The Blade Must Fall, Julien Baptiste is an intelligent but somewhat naive detective, sent to work in Clermiers, a town filled with corruption. A girl goes missing, presumed dead after bloody clothes are found close to an illicit party near an abandoned chateau. Baptiste believes he’s nailed the culprit, the eccentric Gilles Mailloux. When he appears in court, the public call for the guillotine – and that’s the sentence Lellouche gets. But as Mailloux awaits an appeal for clemency, he asks to see Baptiste, who’s still haunted by the fact the girl’s body remains missing. As the clock ticks towards execution hour, Baptiste begins to realise he may have made a terrible mistake…
David Hewson, author said: ‘Julien Baptiste is as fascinating and enigmatic a character from TV drama as Sarah Lund from The Killing. The Blade Must Fall is an equally exciting challenge – to portray Baptiste in an entirely new story of my own, set forty years before he became the obsessive pursuer of the missing we’ve met, exploring the case that made him who he was. At a time when capital punishment is still in place in France, Baptiste is called to the cell of a condemned prisoner, Gilles Mailloux , on the day he’s due to face the guillotine. Only to begin to suspect he caught the wrong man after all.’
Sam Eades, publisher said: ‘As a viewer gripped by “The Missing” and “Baptiste” I wanted to know more about the enigmatic French detective Julien Baptiste. I’m thrilled to be working with David Hewson, Jack Williams and Harry Williams to continue his story. The Missing and Baptiste have been licensed in over 130 countries, and we see this novel as a major publishing event across the world.’
Harry and Jack Williams from Two Brothers Pictures said: ‘When we created The Missing we were blown away by the love for never-quite-retired investigator Julien Baptiste, a character who viewers instantly took into their hearts. We are thrilled than Baptiste will have a new life in fiction, written with such insight and skill by David Hewson and narrated in audio by Tchéky Karyo.’
About the author
David Hewson is a former journalist with The Times, the Sunday Times and the Independent. He is the author of more than twenty-five novels including his Rome-based Nic Costa series, which has been published in fifteen languages, and the Arnold Clover mysteries set in Venice. He has also written three acclaimed adaptations of the Danish TV series The Killing.
About Two Brothers Pictures
Two Brothers Pictures was set up by BAFTA and Golden Globe nominated writer and producers Harry and Jack Williams in 2014. With the aim of producing quality scripted television in the UK and internationally, Two Brothers Pictures has quickly become one of the most exciting and successful production companies in the UK. The London based independent, which joined the All3Media family in February 2017, has produced some of TVs best loved shows including Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s Emmy winning, modern cult classic, Fleabag (for BBC Three and Amazon), much talked about drama Liar (ITV), and the hugely successful Baptiste (BBC One) both written by Harry and Jack Williams Focussing on original contemporary stories, the company also produced The Widow starring Kate Beckinsale (ITV and Amazon), ratings hit drama Cheat (ITV), ambitious international drama series Strangers (ITV and Amazon) and Daisy Haggard’s “darkly comic gem”, Back To Life (BBC One) for a second series and their outback Thriller The Tourist (BBC One, HBO Max, Stan & ZDF) starring Jamie Dornan has been a huge hit internationally.