Sophie Hénaff

Grilled Chickens Take Roost
Review of the MacLehose Press paperback (2017) translated by Sam Gordon from the French language original "Poulets grillés" (Grilled Chickens*) (2015)

[3.5 rounded up]
Parisian police Commissaire Anne Capestan has been on temporary suspension for her latest shooting incident, the last of many. She returns to the office to hear her fate, which is to be put in charge of a newly formed squad to work on cold cases. The job sounds ideal, until she discovers that the squad will consist of 40 or so misfits which no one else wants to work with.

Only a few members of the squad actually report for duty on the first days at their new brigade headquarters. Capestan still endeavours to make the most of a bad situation and the several members of the squad sort through the boxes of cold case files looking for potential solvable cases. Two murders come to their attention and they proceed to chase down what few clues that exist. The text meanwhile has flashback interjections of a boating accident from decades past and a concurrent plot of a young man planning to marry his girlfriend. At first these seem to have no relation to the investigations but by the end all of the plot strands come together.

The Awkward Squad was a quick and enjoyable read which played up the comic elements of the several characters but which still made for an interesting police procedural. There was no apparent acknowledgement of its inspirations, but readers will likely notice some similarities with Mick Herron's Slough House/Slow Horses and Jussi Adler-Olsen's Department Q.

See French language cover at https://collectifpolar.files.wordpress.com/2016/04/97822263147100-2539876.jpg?w=...
Cover image of one of the original French language editions showing a cartoon interpretation of several of the main characters. Image sourced from Collectif polar : chronique de nuit.

The Awkward Squad is the first of three books in the Anne Capestan series and the first of two to be translated into English. The second book is Stick Together (2018) translated from the French language original Rester groupés (2016). The third book Art et décès (2019) is currently only available in the original French language.

Trivia and Links
* Although the French title literally translates as "Grilled Chickens", it basically means "Disgraced Cops". The Parisian slang for the police is "poulet" (French: chicken) due to the central police station on Île de la Cité being built on the site of a former chicken market. "Grillés" (French: grilled) is slang for disgraced. My thanks to Charly M. on Twitter for pointing me to this background history at https://twitter.com/metralch/status/1557869726021423104.

See poster at https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BZjQ1MDE4MmMtMDVhNS00Yjk4LWFiOTUtYmFmYzMz...
Movie poster for the French language TV film adaptation. Image sourced from IMDb.

The Awkward Squad was adapted for a 2022 French language TV movie under its original title of Poulets grillés (Marketed in English as The Undercops). You can watch two French language TV trailers for it (turn on subtitles and then turn on annotations and select an auto-translate language of your choice) here and here. The trailers leave the impression that the adaptation may not be completely faithful to the book.… (more)

I can't remember how I discovered the first book in this series, The Awkward Squad, but I thoroughly enjoyed it; it felt fresh and it amused me, and I chalked up any small irritations to the translation from the French.

This second book was much the same, although there were more straight-up translation issues this time; errors that should have been caught in editing - like saying the "France people" instead of the "French People" in one spot. And a few things were just cultural references I didn't understand, not being French myself. Glossing over them didn't affect my understanding of the plot or the mystery, though undoubtedly I missed a layer of enjoyment.

The series focuses on a department of the police judiciaire, which was occasionally referred to as PJs, which made me giggle more than it should have. This department was created as a repository for all the misfits that couldn't be fired; they were established in an old office building offsite with all the cold case files that have never been solved, and then left to fend for themselves.

I didn't expect this to work as well as it does, but I enjoy reading about the individual misfits and how their odd contributions further the pursuit of criminals and solve cases. It's far-fetched, sure, but it never feels silly or slapstick, somehow.

It's not perfect, but it's highly enjoyable, and I sincerely hope the author continues to write more in the series, and that they continue to be translated into English.… (more)

I can't remember where I heard about this book (best bet is here on BL) but it was described as a new mystery series similar to the old tv show Leverage*. The premise of the show was a group of misfits coming together to right the wrongs big business perpetrated against the people. The Awkward Squad's misfits are police officers unfit for regular duty but can't be fired, banded together and stuffed away in a remote location with the ostensible task of investigating cold cases. I loved Leverage, so bought this directly after it came out.

It's not quite Leverage - the misfits here aren't conmen, toughs or savants; these misfits are all broken by their jobs in one way or another, but it's close enough. For a first novel, I thought the story was excellent and well plotted too, although with definite room for improvement. It was written well enough that I only had vague suspicions about the solution, but not done so well that the author was able to lead me down the blind alley she'd constructed. The characters were the kind you cheer on, even if some of them aren't always likeable.

I didn't know when I bought the book that it was originally published in France a few years ago, under the name Poulets grillés. This leaves me with a lingering suspicion that it might have been an even better book in the original French. Not that the translation is bad - as far as I can tell it's flawless - but some of the marketing I've seen raves about the book humor. I can see how it's meant to be amusing, and one scene was definitely shooting for hilarity, but either something was lost in translation or it's a cultural difference of what defines funny.

Either way, I didn't like it less because I suspect I'm missing something, I just wonder if, had those 2.5 years of French lessons stuck at all, and I were able to read it in the original, I'd have liked it even more. Ce n'est pas grave, if Hēnaff writes another one, I'll happily be on board for reading it (in translation).

* - Has also been compared to Jussi Adler-Olsen’s tales about Copenhagen’s equally marginal Department Q. I cannot comment on how accurate this is, as I've not read Adler-Olsen. Yet?… (more)