DEEPEST FRANCE & MYSTERIOUS DAYS: Paired Novels
Copied from the Official Blog of Julius Raper, FirstPosted on August 11, 2011
The two novels in DEEPEST FRANCE & MYSTERIOUS DAYS came to me in very different ways, but each was exciting to write. After the research for the first novel, DEEPEST FRANCE, I had to wait for each of the characters to come to life for me. The French family, Christine, Philip, and little Charles Plantard, were there from the start, but others were several years in arriving.
For MYSTERIOUS DAYS the dramatic ending came to me first—loud and clear. I arrived at the other chapters like a man walking in a dark tunnel, not knowing where his next step would take him but knowing that each day he would find what he needed to keep him on his way to that ending.
DEEPEST FRANCE opens with a gruesome 1984 news report, then jumps to a message the American Milt Walters sends from Virginia to Anthi, his adult daughter living in Paris :
Rennes-les-Bains—A four-year-old boy missing since last Thursday from his
home in Rennes-les-Bains, Deepest France, was found this morning in the
Salz River just below this charming little village of fewer than a thousand
inhabitants. Local officials have identified the boy as Charles Plantard, son
of Philip Plantard, the maire (mayor) of this small resort known chiefly for its
thermal baths and historical importance.
Officials added that the body was discovered, with arms and ankles bound
in rope and drawn tightly against the torso, lodged under a low footbridge
over the Salz within 100 meters of the village. Preliminary indications, they
continued, are that death occurred before the boy entered the river inasmuch as the body bore upward of a dozen wounds probably inflicted by a long knife or other sharp instrument.
Young Plantard was still wearing the blue trousers and shirt and purple coat
he had on when his mother, Christine Plantard, twenty-five, also of Rennes-lesBains, sent him to the baker’s for bread and, according to official reports, kissed him good-bye for the last time.
Investigations are continuing.
•••
Since you asked, dear Anthi, this is the story that gripped the heart of the French nation that spring we spent in France, the drama that millions of French men and women rushed each morning to their newsstands and televisions to follow, as layer after appalling layer revealed itself to them, like the proverbial onion of truth peeled before their eyes.
MYSTERIOUS DAYS , in contrast, begins with ”Day Seven,” the final day of the story:
At least his cell was a modern one, by the standards of Hurricane Pointe back in Virginia. The bed hung from heavy chains and folded up to give Milt room to move about now that it was almost day again. The mattress, grey vinyl, was not soft but still thick enough to rest his depleted body. A metal toilet and washstand protruded from the rear wall. Aside from the sting of disinfectant, the odor seemed almost bearable. Walls on three sides were solid metal or stone, so he had a modicum of privacy despite the fourth wall of bars. Since no cell opened directly across from his, he didn’t have to worry about eyes except when a jailer came along the walk between the compartments.
What worried him most was the accusation the gendarmes, who he now realized were an arm of the French military, planned to lodge against him. During the night of interrogation, they failed to explain his rights under French law and refused to detail charges. These could include kidnapping and assault—even murder if Shanti didn’t make it. He hoped they wouldn’t dream up some phony child abuse claim, the way Christine, psychotherapist that she was, feared they might. And there was no way, was there, that they could go back and try to pin a rap on him for colluding in the death of Claud Plantard twenty years ago. He no longer considered it possible that the cops would suspect he’d played a part in the worst of recent crimes in this part of their nation, since it was ridiculous to imagine they had even read Deepest France, his novel about the brutal murder nearby of little Charles.
His best defense, he told himself, would be to get his story straight and trust that it would agree with whatever statements his wife Christine, daughter Anthi, and Gloria might give. To that end he had spent his solitary hours of the night in a disturbed reverie sorting events of the past six days. He intended to do the same until the gendarmes came for him again.
DEEPEST FRANCE is a good deal more complex than MYSTERIOUS DAYS. Some readers may elect to read the second story first and then go back to the first to fill in gaps in the histories of “little Charles,” the Plantard family, and the murders of the region. The “Paired Novels” format of this book facilitates a back-and-forth reading. My hope is that you have as much fun reading the two mysteries as I did writing them.
- Julius Raper -
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Black Madonna, Copy-cat murder, descendents of Jesus, Eccentric Fiction, elderly heroics, family crimes, fiction as knowledge, French Grail mysteries, French Pyrenees, general literature, Grail quest, Mary Magdalena, murder mystery, murdered children, Rennes-le-Chateau, rescue | Leave a reply
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