She is a police officer… and she writes detective novels. Psychological thrillers, precisely, the second and most recent of which, The Second House, completely captivated us with its rhythm, its atmosphere, its characters.
Charlène Desjardins is not even 30 years old, but her maturity is immediately evident. As a teenager, she dreamed of being an investigator. And she read, a lot, imagining herself writing her own stories.
Despite everything, she first studied human sciences at CEGEP, telling herself that the patrol and the police might not be for her after all.
“It was during these two years that it clicked,” explains Charlène Desjardins. I was watching SQ shows on TV, then I realized that it’s really something that interests me. So I went to do my three years in police techniques. »
She wrote her first novel, Fraction, during this period. “I wrote lots of books when I was young, but I never finished them; I wrote it haphazardly, I didn’t have a plan,” she says. She worked on Fraction for three years before deciding to finish it. Once it was published, in 2021, she was able to start thinking about the next one, which she ultimately wrote in seven months; and already, she has two more in the works.
The Second House follows the investigation of Jack, a defense attorney living in Boston whose sister, Emily, has disappeared. All she left behind is a bloody crime scene in the family cabin. With no clues to find her body, the investigators decide to give up the case. That’s when her brother begins to dig on his own, unable to resign himself to abandoning his sister; but as he searches, he gradually discovers that he didn’t know her as well as he thought.
“For me, the crime that is in the novel [and that we keep quiet so as not to divulge anything], it is the most serious that exists,” she says, suddenly losing her smile. It was important for me to talk about it because there are far too many women who hide in silence. And then we think it’s because what they experienced isn’t true. »
Through the plot, The Second House addresses glaring current social issues, which Charlène Desjardins’ profession inevitably fuels.
“And I have a lot of knowledge now that I can use to bring a little more realism to my books,” she adds.
Between the profession of policewoman and that of novelist, there are many more similarities than one might think, in fact. Charlène Desjardins is convinced that the two are completely complementary, and she would not give up either.
“The main quality to have in the police is to be able to adapt. It’s the same thing in a book, because sometimes your characters take you somewhere you didn’t expect, and you follow them there. The big difference is that in a book, you have all the time to think about it; in the police, it’s: go, let’s go! »
But to continue to love writing, she will never force herself to do it if the inspiration is not there. And when she starts with an idea, she chooses a place on the map, somewhere other than Quebec, with the aim of creating a story that would be universal, in a way. “Plus, it makes me discover the city at the same time as I write,” says Charlène Desjardins.
And what do her colleagues think of her writing? “They think it’s sick,” she says, laughing. “I wasn’t basically writing to be known, I was just writing for fun. For me, it’s like a dream to be published. »