The Awkward Squad

An entertaining, original, humorous, well-plotted story of a new squad of outcasts in the Paris Police coming together to solve two murders.

"The Awkward Squad" is the English translation of "Poulet Grillés", (literally 'grilled chickens' - although poulet is also used a term for prostitutes) which has a slightly more pejorative feel to it than the English title suggests. The Awkward Squad sounds defiant in a bloody-minded other-ranks-insolence kind of way whereas Poultries Grille suggests people who have burned their careers.

The book has a premise that I think is a peculiarly French mix of the logical, the absurd and unacknowledgeable but well-understood reality. The Paris police have set up a new Squad, led by a previously promising show more but now disgraced Commisar, into which they've dumped forty or so failed but unsackable police officers and a collection of unsolved cases. There's no expectation that the squad members will turn up never mind solve a case. The declared purpose of the Squad is to make the stats of the other Squads better by concentrating all the failure in one place.

This is a great set up or dry humour, eccentric characters and a bit of suspense. To my surprise, it also turned out to include complex investigations into a couple of murders.
What makes "The Awkward Squad" different from Anglo versions of the same kind of story of outcasts working cold cases is the stoicism of the officers who have been branded as not wanted. They don't throw angry tantrums. They accept where they are and hope that things might get better. They discover that by learning to trust and support each other, they can win back their self-respect.

Their leader, Comisionaire Anne Capestan, a woman whose anger and loss of control has cost her her marriage and her career, declines despair, opting instead for cautious optimism and patience. She doesn't use her authority in traditional ways, nor does she allow her boundaries to be set by her bosses. Instead, she prods and encourages and cajoles the misfits into taking on challenging cases, even though they have no resources and almost no authority.

The members of the Squad are well-drawn individuals rather than stereotypes. They each have problems but they also have something to offer. The English phrase for them is probably a motley crew.

I'd expected the investigations to be little more than a vehicle for humour and character development but Sophie Hénaff delivers a well-paced, complex investigation that goes to some unexpected places and changes the overall perception of what the Squad is for.

"The Awkward Squad" was a book that I read with a smile on my face, not so much because it was funny, although it often was, but because this book manages to be hopeful without getting mushy or sentimental. It was a book I enjoyed reading and looked forward to getting back to. For me, that's quite rare.

Sophie Hénaff is a French journalist who writes humorous columns Cosmopolitan. "The Awkward Squad" was her first novel. It won the 2015 Polar Series Prize, the Arsène-Lupin Prize and the 2016 prix des Lecteurs du Livre de poche (Paperback Readers Award). The series currently stands at three books, the first two of which have been translated into English. I already have the next one, "Stick Together" in my TBR pile. show less

This was a very amusing listen with a lot of love for all the ‘useless’ protagonists.
The Paris police headquarters at 36 Quai des Orfèvres has a new director. Their aim is to polish up the investigation rates and statistics and get rid of all the annoying, recalcitrant and unwilling employees. To this end, the management team creates a new brigade to bring together all the alcoholics, slackers, bullies, depressives and police officers who feel they have a different calling - such as Eva Rozière, who writes crime novels instead of investigating. She hands over the reins to Anne Capestan, a once promising young policewoman who was suspended from duty after making a fatal mistake. What is expected of her: to keep quiet. But Anne show more hates nothing more than simply obeying. That's why she leaves no stone unturned and, together with her troupe of outcasts, sets up a police department with unconventional methods in a shabby office with miserable technical equipment, no weapons and no flashing blue lights and - to the horror of the new bosses - solves old cases that don't show the new management team in a good light. show less

Author Sophie Hénaff starts with a premise that a lot of businesses probably wish they could do: round up all the losers they can't fire and put them someplace where they can be overlooked and forgotten. What I love is the fact that the author then turns this on its head-- what if these police officers aren't the wastes of space everyone believes them to be?

French police hierarchy has rounded up this group of embarrassments, put them in a rundown building with little or no equipment or supplies and tells Commissaire Anne Capestan point-blank, "We're paying you to play dominoes or do some knitting." That was their second mistake. Their first was to put Anne Capestan in charge of this motley crew that includes Bad Luck Torrez, Merlot show more the drunk, Évrard the gambler, and others. Capestan has absolutely no intention of going quietly into that good night, but she needs the help of the few officers who bothered to show up for duty.

The mysteries this group solve are good ones and make for enjoyable reading, but the real treat of The Awkward Squad is watching this group of misfits come together to form a team, find resources that headquarters won't give them, and solve crimes that no one expected them to solve. The sly humor that appears from time to time is icing on the cake.

There's always been a part of me that roots for the underdog, and now that I've met this unlikely group of crime solvers, I can't wait to cheer them on in the next book. show less

A crime writer, a drunk, a gambler, a rat & a s**t magnet….these are just a few of the police officers Commissaire Anne Capestan inherits when she is “promoted” to lead the newly formed cold case unit of the Police Judiciaire of Paris. But then she’s in no position to judge. She got the new assignment due to her tendency to shoot people.

Anne’s boss is cleaning house & that means getting rid of all unsolved cases right along with officers who have been deemed “undesirables”. Their mandate is clear. The unit will set up shop in an old apartment building, furnished with boxes of cold case files. They can work on whichever ones they want. Or not. Show up each day as if they have a real job. Or not. Just stay away from police show more HQ. Approximately 40 cops of various rank are assigned to the unit. On the first day, 3 report for duty.

Eva Rosière is a flamboyant woman who made a fortune moonlighting as a crime writer. Unfortunately she wrote about what she knew….her colleagues. But she still loves being a cop & will get to work right after she does something about the deplorable lack of decor in their new office.

Lóuis-Baptiste Lebreton already knows Anne. He investigated her in his previous job with Internal Affairs & they didn’t exactly part on the best of terms.

“Malchance” Torrez is like a black cat. After losing a series of partners due to injury or death, no one wants to cross his path & he can clear a room by walking in the door.

Anne decides they have nothing to lose & after digging through all the boxes, 2 cases stand out. Yann Guénan was a sailor who was murdered 20 years ago in a professional style hit. Old age pensioner Marie Sauzelle was killed in her home 8 years ago in what looked like a robbery gone wrong. Anne & her colleagues pair up & begin to dig into the past. Turns out they’re not complete screw-ups after all & before they know it, that digging results in a fresh body.

In alternate chapters we follow 2 additional story lines. One introduces us to Alexandre & his wife Rosa as they await the birth of their first child in Florida. In the other we meet Gabriel & Manon, a young couple in Paris who just got engaged. The two stories play out decades apart, keeping the reader intrigued as we gradually discover how they are related.

This is the first in a popular French series featuring colourful characters who are the dregs of the Paris police force. While the crimes are serious, the story is full of dry offbeat humour. It’s just as much about these fallen heroes as it is about the cases & we gradually get the scoop on how each ended up an outcast.

The author loves her characters & she handles them with care. At first, they have much in common with the derelict apartment they’ve inherited…..abandoned, unwanted & a little worn around the edges. When Eva takes on redecorating the place (with some interesting choices) the others begin to contribute bits & pieces, unaware they’re creating a home that reflects their new “family”. These are people who were singled out in old jobs due to their mistakes. As they make progress on the cases, there’s a genuine esprit de corps that gradually develops as they learn to accept each others’ tics & foibles. As the apartment is transformed, so too are the detectives as they find a place where they no longer stand out for all the wrong reasons.

There are some great twists as the story lines converge. The old murders are just the tip of the iceberg & Anne & her crew are in for a few surprises. There’s a genuine warmth to this story of oddballs & it makes for a nice break from some of the grittier stuff. They’re an engaging bunch & here’s hoping Sam Gordon (who provides an excellent translation) is hard at work on book #2. show less

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 show more 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? show less

*Thank you to Edelweiss , The Publisher and The Author for allowing me to read this book in return for a fair and hones review*
So going into this book, I didn't really know how I was going to feel. Although I liked the synopsis, I was worried it would be more comedy hi-jinks, with a smidge of mystery. I was pleasantly surprised that this was not the case. I was even more surprised that I did not guess the ending, weird right? It has been such a long time where I haven't correctly guessed the ending of a book that it made me excited to see what was going on. I ended up reading this book in about a day.

First off I loved Capestan, despite the fact that she was basically in charge of unwanted cops, she didn't let that stop her from actually show more doing her job and trying. She was not some defeated has-been captain, she took what she got and ran with it, and it worked! Ultimately the squads job is to take cold unsolved cases and solve them, however no one actually expects the squad to solve these cases. This lack of faith doesn't actually stop the m from trying to solve these cases.

Secondly, there was not a single person on the squad that I hated. While some may be slightly annoying, there wasn't one I didn't like. They made the story interesting but not comical, which is great. When there was humor in the story it was well placed, and didn't take away from the mystery. The conclusion was gripping and I loved how it ended. I found out this was a series and immediately knew I would be reading the second book show less

*Thank you to Edelweiss , The Publisher and The Author for allowing me to read this book in return for a fair and hones review*
Hello Fellow Readers,

So going into this book, I didn't really know how I was going to feel. Although I liked the synopsis, I was worried it would be more comedy hi-jinks, with a smidge of mystery. I was pleasantly surprised that this was not the case. I was even more surprised that I did not guess the ending, weird right? It has been such a long time where I haven't correctly guessed the ending of a book that it made me excited to see what was going on. I ended up reading this book in about a day.

First off I loved Capestan, despite the fact that she was basically in charge of unwanted cops, she didn't let that show more stop her from actually doing her job and trying. She was not some defeated has-been captain, she took what she got and ran with it, and it worked! Ultimately the squads job is to take cold unsolved cases and solve them, however no one actually expects the squad to solve these cases. This lack of faith doesn't actually stop the m from trying to solve these cases.

Secondly, there was not a single person on the squad that I hated. While some may be slightly annoying, there wasn't one I didn't like. They made the story interesting but not comical, which is great. When there was humor in the story it was well placed, and didn't take away from the mystery. The conclusion was gripping and I loved how it ended. I found out this was a series and immediately knew I would be reading the second book. show less