After 12 years, more than 20 book prizes and over 450,000 copies sold worldwide, we’re proud to share that bestselling French crime author Olivier Truc just published the final installment of his Reindeer Police series, The First Reindeer (Le Premier Renne), on August 30th with Éditions Métailié, as a lead fall title (French rentrée littéraire). The First Reindeer (Le Premier Renne), which the French press is already buzzing about, concludes the bestselling crime pentalogy that started in 2012 with Forty Days Without Shadow/The Last Sámi (Le Dernier Lapon).
Book #1 was published into 20 languages and translations exist in these languages (check list here) for any publishers interested in reissuing/continuing the series. Additionally, Film/TV rights to all five books are currently available.
The Reindeer Police books are a timely, magnificent and gripping series of crime novels steeped in Sámi and Nordic culture.
Klemet Nango is an experienced Sámi police officer who grew up in one of the few Sámi villages beyond the Arctic Circle. Nina Nansen is an ambitious recent police graduate from southern Norway. Together they form Patrol P9 of the Reindeer Police. Lapland may appear vast, inhospitable and semi-deserted, but drama lurks where you least expect it. Over the years Klemet and Nina solve cases and uncover the hidden face of Arctic society, from the Sámi reindeer herders whose traditions date back generations, to the iron mine workers, executives and geologists who arrive in ever increasing numbers to mine the region’s ore deposits.
Amid clashes over environmental issues and indigenous rights, Klemet and Nina must solve border disputes and reindeer theft as well as more sinister acts of crime, murder and vengeance, including a stolen ancient Sámi drum, the discovery of human bones at a reindeer slaughter site, and a gruesome explosion on the iron ore transportation railway.
Olivier Truc delves back into Sámi history with the first book in the series, Forty Days Without Shadow/The Last Sámi (Le Dernier Lapon), and brings the story full circle with The First Reindeer (Le Premier Renne), a spectacular forward-looking final episode in the pentalogy, which shows how modernity and tradition must learn to sit side by side in order for future generations to thrive.
The press has already said…
"Olivier Truc immerses us in a fascinating study of a complex territory fighting for its survival. ... His characters convey strong emotions, and certain scenes, like the marking of fawns during the summer solstice, are as moving as they are precise. This First Reindeer is an important milestone in his fictional work." Libération
"This substantial, well-executed crime novel has the merit of familiarizing us with crucial issues, even though they are absent from international headlines." Les Echos
"Olivier Truc's latest thriller skillfully portrays a people fighting for their survival. 5/5." Le Télégramme
Based in Stockholm since 1994, Olivier Truc is an award-winning, internationally acclaimed French writer, journalist, TV documentary director and producer, and scriptwriter. He was previously the Nordic and Baltic regional correspondent for French broadsheet Le Monde and has produced several documentaries. In addition to the five bestselling crime novels in the Reindeer Police series, he has published a historical novel, The Cartographer of the Boreal Indies (2019, Métailié), The Dark Paths of Karachi (2022, Métailié), a thriller set between Pakistan and France, and L'inconnue du port (2023, Points/Alfaguara), written together with Spanish co-author Rosa Montero. L'inconnue du port is currently being adapted for the screen by Netflix.
For further information about Olivier Truc’s work, please contact Anna Soler-Pont (anna@pontas-agency.com).