Lontano by Jean Christophe Grangé: Unveiling Secrets in a Thrilling Tale

A spine-chilling, breathless chase in the Congo-France-Belgium triangle by Jean-Christophe Grange.

They were the ones who knew the secret of immortality.

Burning with a sense of revenge, they were the pioneers of evil.

They were the ones who could transcend time and space. With the dark sorceries they brought from the depths of Africa, they surpassed the limits of the mind.

Quotes from “Lontano”:

There is no limit to stupidity.

I despise society and it makes me very happy.

Coming into the world is for a terrible country...

Cow dung is more necessary than beliefs because it can be used as fertilizer.

The most beautiful victories were the ones that no one ever heard of.

Evil is a spiritual disorder, a human pathology.

...He wasn't getting caught up in empty dreams, but he wanted to believe, especially to try. He wouldn't be upset if he failed.

Not thinking about your enemy meant defeating them.

For a Buddhist, hatred and love were equivalent.

No brain can predict everything. Otherwise, wars would last only a few days.

I am the person I decided to be. I started from scratch.

He had even chosen a godmother for himself: Kali, the dark, deadly goddess who kept an eye on the city. She wore a skirt made of severed arms, had a protruding bloody tongue, and destroyed anything she didn't like.

The existence of a person was a reverse alchemy: Lead wasn't turned into gold, but it stubbornly turned gold into lead. How had his love story with Sofia turned into a tangle of hatred and enmity?

You're a man of your time. Content doesn't matter, what matters is the style of expression.

"Lontano" Review - Personal Comments and Summary:

"Lontano" is a book that can be read in one breath for those who love detective novels. However, it might seem too detailed and boring for those who do not like this genre. Dark magic, revenge, a breathless pursuit in the Congo-France-Belgium triangle. While reading, you will sometimes stop to take a breath and then continue.

Near Brest, there is a village named Kaerverec. This village has a sea aviation school, and when there is a case involving a rookie, the police officer Gregoire Morvan sends his police officer son Erwan Morvan to the village where the murder took place. Thus, the events begin. Gregoire Morvan married a woman named Maggie, they had three children named Erwan, Loic, and Gaelle. He used to be a police officer working in the murder bureau in Africa. His son Erwan has also started working in the murder bureau just like his father. Since Erwan will be involved in a rookie case for the first time, he starts researching the matter. The case is as follows: Wissa Sawiris, a young man who started the sea aviation school, hides in a shelter on an island to avoid endurance tests. He spends the night there. The next morning, the area where he is becomes the target of a shooting exercise. Everything is blown up, turned into dust, and it is learned that the boy was hit by one of the missiles before being blown up.

Erwan goes to Brest to investigate this case. However, when he arrives at the aviation school, he realizes that the events are very different from what they seem and what they were told, and he is dragged into complexity. His first task is to investigate the rookie training. This training, which is a kind of endurance test, is a tradition applied to every new soldier in the school.

As he goes deeper, the case worsens. This case, called "no limit," is based on a truth. In the rookie training, the students are fed dog food, bottles are filled with urine, and they are tortured for fun. No limit is worse than all of this. The rookies who come out of torture are blindfolded and driven towards the sea on the shores, and they are asked to hide. To understand more about no limit, Erwan asks for a detailed autopsy of the remains of Wissa's body. The results are not encouraging. Wissa was tortured, cuts were made on his body. There are signs of beatings, bruises, and red marks on his body. Cuts, stab wounds, holes in the body... Most importantly, Wissa was already dead before the explosion. This confirms that the incident was not an accident but a murder. The mutilated internal organs are sent for toxicological examination. Erwan thinks Wissa was brought to the island on a zodiac boat. Wissa was not brought there by swimming, his dead body was brought by a ship. Moreover, Wissa's hair was shaved before he died, and he was raped. This information also indicates how severe the rookie training "no limit" is. Erwan first thinks that the foxes, who are their instructors, are the ones who did this. However, the situation is different from that. He learns this from the autopsy results that came from the organs. The injuries on Wissa's body are consistent with nail marks and other signs of a struggle. Erwan finds it difficult to believe that the instructors who applied the rookie training are involved in this, and he suspects that someone else did it. This becomes clearer when he receives the autopsy results. There are nails in Wissa's stomach. He thinks these were forced down his throat before he died. There are also signs of razor marks and other items being nailed to the body. Moreover, there are hairs and nails in his stomach that do not belong to him. The situation is getting worse. Erwan starts thinking about who might be responsible for this, who could do something so cruel. He believes the trainers are the ones who do it, but the situation is not like that. He finds out the truth from the autopsy results: Wissa had nails, hairs, and nails in his stomach. These nails, hairs, and nails have DNA that belongs to Pharabot. Erwan concludes that he must be the culprit.

Meanwhile, Gregoire Morvan contacts his son Erwan and tells him that a young girl named Anne Simoni, whom he protected years ago, has been killed and that he must return to Paris as soon as possible to investigate the case. Erwan comes to Paris with his team and his assistant Kripo. Since Erwan thinks that the case is related to the Wissa incident, he decides to investigate it. Anne Simoni's autopsy results show that the hairs and nails found in her stomach belong to Anne Simoni. In other words, the hair and nails of the next victim are placed in the stomach of the corpse by the murderer. The same is true for the nails and razors found in Anne Simoni's body. The commander of the Sea Aviation School, Di Greco, commits suicide. Di Greco was Morvan's closest friend, and he left a clue on a piece of paper before he died. The only word written on the paper is "LONTANO." Erwan is surprised to see Di Greco's right-hand man Pernaud at the crime scene. Similarly, the hairs and nails taken from Anne Simoni's stomach belong to Pernaud. The nail murderer wants to take revenge on Morvan's family. Erwan tries to find out who the fourth victim is by asking for an autopsy. He thinks that not killing him years ago and arresting him might cost his family. Morvan, on the other hand, is helpless. How could he know that this case he closed years ago would come to light and turn into a revenge? The results of Pernaud's autopsy reveal everything. The hair and nail samples taken from the body belong to Pernaud. Kripo tells him that they belong to Erwan's sister Gaelle. In the meantime, Gaelle is in a mental hospital due to psychological problems. Erwan hurries there and learns that his sister has escaped the murderer's grasp. The police officer who protects Gaelle has also been killed. Gaelle managed to escape from him at the last moment. Erwan accelerates the investigations and identifies three suspects with profiles of the nail murderer. If the scenario is correct, the three suspects are Di Greco, Ivo Lartigue, Redlich, and Joseph Iriusanga. The nail murderer wants revenge on Morvan and to psychologically wear him down. The fact that the victims are chosen from his surroundings also supports this idea. Nevertheless, Pharabot himself took revenge through them. Despite everything, the word "Lontano" was a warning to his father: Pharabot was coming back.

As the investigations progress, Erwan learns that Redlich, Irısuanga, and Lartigues live together in a house and conduct their activities and rituals from there. He organizes an operation to confront them, leading to a confrontation. Erwan takes charge of the operation. Unfortunately, during the operation, Lartigues sends missiles from within the house, killing Archambault, a member of Erwan's team. Erwan rushes into the house. Morvan, Erwan's father, believes that Erwan should be with his family and shoots Erwan in the leg to prevent him from continuing the operation. Erwan, determined, continues the operation alone. Inside the house, he confronts and kills Lartigues, the source of the missiles. Redlich, an expert marksman, engages with Erwan, but Morvan intervenes, pushing Redlich into the flames. Lastly, Erwan shoots Irısuanga before leaving the house, eliminating the killers. With the situation under control, Erwan reunites with his father.

Although Erwan has closed the case and put an end to the threat, he remains haunted by unanswered questions. His sister Gaelle mentions that she feels someone is still watching her. To ensure her safety, Erwan takes her with him while continuing his investigation discreetly. As he digs deeper, he uncovers new information. He learns that Pharabot, also known as "çivi adam," had an eight-year-old accomplice when he committed the murders years ago. If that person is alive, he would now be fifty years old and likely living in Belgium. Erwan travels to Belgium, where he finds Sister Marcelle, a witness to the events. She reveals that Pharabot had an isolated cabin located about two kilometers from Lontano. Zaire soldiers found materials, magical objects, and notes related to his practices in the cabin after the murders. The cabin also contained an eight-year-old child. The soldiers burned down the cabin but imprisoned the child. However, Erwan's father Morvan believed in the child's innocence and arranged for the necessary documents to place him under the care of Sister Marcelle. The child, named Arno Loyens, had lost his parents and gained Pharabot's magical powers. When Pharabot died, his partner, the child, was sent to a Belgian orphanage. Morvan orchestrated this change, and the child's name was altered. Erwan presents these revelations to Morvan, questioning why he kept the truth hidden for so long. Morvan explains that Arno had died years ago in a fire at the orphanage. Erwan doubts the story and requests proof of Arno's death. That night, Morvan investigates this doubt. Meanwhile, Erwan and Gaelle fall asleep after watching a movie. At 3 AM, Erwan's phone rings; it's his father. Morvan reveals that Arno did not die and that he changed his name to Philippe Kriesler. This is the same name as Erwan's assistant detective, known as "Kripo." Erwan is shocked, and in that moment, he sees a silhouette holding a gun. It doesn't take long for him to recognize Kripo. Kripo, Pharabot's accomplice, aims to kill Erwan. However, Gaelle intervenes and saves Erwan by stabbing Kripo in the neck. Kripo falls, fatally wounded. The truth behind the Lontano investigation's main culprit is revealed. Erwan's family finds a sense of peace, and they head home for a vacation. While Erwan has officially closed the case, he still carries the investigation papers with him. Although the killers are dead, and the case seems closed, one name catches Erwan's eye: Catherine Fontana, Pharabot's seventh female victim. When Erwan questions Morvan about Fontana, Morvan insists that the case is closed. However, Erwan realizes that Morvan knows more about Fontana's case and is keeping the truth hidden. With determination, Erwan embarks on a journey to Africa to uncover the truth behind the Fontana incident.

Such a life, such a death.

Wishing You Enjoyable Reading in Advance.