Roxanne Bouchard returns with fourth Joaquim Moralès novel set in Percé
À la grâce des fous uses a murder mystery as pretext to explore grief, art, and beauty in the Gaspésie — Bouchard's recurring landscape for her crime series.
The day's top stories, food & events — every morning at 7. Unsubscribe anytime.
Roxanne Bouchard has returned with her fourth crime novel featuring investigator Joaquim Moralès, À la grâce des fous, set in Percé. The book uses a murder plot as scaffolding for deeper themes: grief, art, and beauty.
Bouchard, a Canadian writer and educator born in 1972, is best known for her maritime crime fiction series centred on Moralès's investigations in Quebec's Gaspé Peninsula. Earlier novels in the series—Nous étions le sel de la mer and La mariée de corail—established the landscape as a character in itself, one she returns to with each instalment.
In À la grâce des fous, the Gaspésie remains central. The novel treats the murder as a vehicle for exploring emotional and artistic territory rather than as the story's driving force. This tonal shift marks a deepening of Bouchard's approach to the series: where earlier books leaned into procedural mystery, this one leans into the emotional truths the landscape and its people contain.
The novel's focus on grief and beauty reflects Bouchard's broader interest in what art reveals about loss—a theme that has shaped her writing across genres. For readers of the series, the fourth instalment offers both continuity and new emotional depth.
The details
Who is the author of À la grâce des fous?
Roxanne Bouchard, a Canadian writer and educator born in 1972, wrote À la grâce des fous.
What is the setting of À la grâce des fous?
À la grâce des fous is set in Percé, in Quebec's Gaspé Peninsula.
What themes does the novel explore?
À la grâce des fous uses a murder mystery to explore grief, art, and beauty in the Gaspésie.
