Quais du Polar 2022 : let’s get ready!
In two weeks, the crime fiction festival Quais du Polar will open. It’s a three-days celebration of crime fiction all over the city. The program is available on the Quais du Polar website and you can download it in pdf file if you’re interested.
The organization of the festival outdid themselves. There are the usual panels with several writers gathered around a theme, the giant bookstore in the gorgeous hall of the Chamber of Commerce, the mystery to solve in the city with a booklet of clues and questions. There are also crime escape games in several museums of the city.
Last year, the festival was in June, during COVID restrictions and they had to do things outdoors. They started the “literary cruises” on the Saône River, using the city’s bateaux-mouches. I went on the cruise with Florence Aubenas last year and this year, I’m very happy that I snatched a ticket for a literary cruise with Olivier Norek.
The Opera and Théâtre de l’Odéon are also involved and I booked a ticket for a Jazz & Literature event with Jake Lamar and Les Paons. I have wonderful memories of the one with James Sallis and Michael Connelly in a previous edition of the festival.
There are tons of talks with writers, opportunities to get signed books, chat with authors and discover the city of Lyon and sneak into places where you usually don’t go, like the grand room at the city hall. Almost everything is set in the city center withing walking distance and all events are free.
The festival has a broad approach of crime and works with the police and the justice to show how things work in real life. The police organize tours at the national school for commissaires de police and police officers set near Lyon. One year, you could do a tour at a police station with police officers to explain how they work. for a tour or have police officers explaining their jobs in police stations.
Last year, I attended a panel at the tribunal with judges and lawyers specialized in cold cases. This year, the festival goes further with bus tours with CSI, police and judicial experts. People you see on the screen and hope to never meet in real life, at least, not in their official capacity.
For the rest, I’m thrilled to spend time at the festival with friends and relatives. Let’s hope that the weather cooperates and it’ll be a fantastic weekend.
Last but not least, the authors without whom this festival wouldn’t exist. Here are the authors invited to the festival. The photos come from the official Quais du Polar website. I put a book sign on the writers I’ve already read (not many, actually). Let me know in the comments which ones you recommend.
Book Around the Corner 
It all sounds amazing Emma. The closest I ever got to such an event was a guided tour of the Old Melbourne Jail where they hanged Ned Kelly, our most famous bushranger.
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It is amazing. They sell 90 000 books during the festival, all through local independent bookstores.
I’ve been to the Old Melbourne Jail too! An interesting tour.
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David Joy is a North Carolina writer, so it may be worth going to see him just for that. I haven’t read him, but someone else in the house has. Plus he writes quite a bit, including one non-fiction book, about fly fishing, your favorite subject.
Really, to the extent that I know anything about it, which is not much, what a great lineup, as always,
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Thanks for pointing out David Joy. I’ll look him up.
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An amazing event! I’m sure you’ll have a fantastic weekend, which I look forward to reading about.
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It’s always a lot of fun and a wonderful celebration of crime fiction.
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Wow, what a great list! You really need to try Bussi, Thilliez, Forge, Norek, and Beuglet, at least.
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Great list, yes.
Which Bussi and Thilliez would you recommend?
I’ve never heard of Forge and Beuglet, I’ll look them up.
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Wishing you a wonderful time Emma, it sounds absolutely amazing!
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Thanks! It should be great.
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Have a blast! Were it not for you, I’m not sure I’d’ve known about this event (from your writing in the past, I mean).
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Thanks! Unfortunately the weather won’t be cooperating. We’ll have rain and wind…
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Good morning! If not too late, I recognize and recommend a bunch on there. My fave is David Peace – very thoughtful and satisfying crime writer know for the « Tokyo Trilogy » in post-war American occupied ruins of Tokyo, and the Red Riding Quartet in very gritty 1970s-80s Yorkshire, also on the list on see Val McDermid – a Scottish legend – I would love to meet her! Elliot « Attackerman » Ackrrman – military background – his novels explore the human cost of war and Amrrican intervention in places like Afghanistan. Abir Mukherjee has a series that takes place in 1920s Calcutta during the British Raj (one of what looks like only two writers of color on the list which is, unfortunately, unfortunate.) Laura Lippman, who writes about Baltimore, and Richard Osman, who is currently enjoying a very well-deserved moment with his new cozy mystery Thursday Mystery Club series. Also the very famous John Grisham who is known for legal thrillers.
My first time, I think, posting here. My name is Andy. I’m retired and have been toying with the idea of writing but had never even considered the book festival aspect. Your post makes it sound so wonderful (I am officially envious!) that now I’m thinking that I just might need to do it and see if I can earn my way onto the festival circuit – what a wonderful motivation – Thank you!
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Whoops – my bad. I do see 3 other writers of color on the list. Progress.
I dont think I have to tell you to « have a great time! », do I? 🙂
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Me again – I realize I’m an unknown quantity in these parts and I wan to apologize and explain myself by commenting on the predominantly white racial make-up of all of these authors at the festival. I meant no offense and I’m sorry if I came across as antagonistic.
I’m old enough that I remember when Sydney Portier in the movies was a big deal. When Diahann Carroll, a Black woman, lbeing the star of her own TV series was an even huge deal. The first law office I ever worked at was all males for several years and the first women attorneys were objects of curiosity whi had to show toughness in order to compete with the boys. My point is, it’s a different, and far better world today because those barriers have finally been broken – such that the almost all-white author participation, to my eye, stands out. It takes awhile, I think, for the pipeline to get going and critical mass achieved such that in the future a mostly white participation will have been a thing of the past. And I hope that I will still be around to see that. That was what I was commenting upon – no antagonism or challenge meant and I do apologize to you and your readers for my sloppiness to you or your readers.
Ok – enough about me, I promise. – back to you and your blog and the books and, hopefully, a delicious report of the Festival.
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The festival is in France and a lot of the writers present are French. May be invited to the festival writers who have published a book in the last twelve months.
And yes, most of them are white males. It’s a complex issue we won’t solve here because it has multiple sources. It’s probably linked to the genre but also to the access to publishing companies.
I will write a billet about the festival soon.
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Hi Andy and welcome to Book Around the Corner!
Thank you for commenting. The festival is over now and it was wonderful indeed.
I’ll have to explore the authors you mentioned, I’ve only read 1974 by David Peace and although I thought it was good literature, I wasn’t keen on reading another one. (Probably because I’m not British and don’t weigh properly the importance of the Yorkshire affair)
Val McDermid is a author I should read but I’m a bit reluctant to start a new series.
Unfortunately, John Grisham was a no-show, due to Covid. He might have done something remotedly, though. He was scheduled for a conference at the court of justice, for a comparison between the French and American judicial systems.
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