Max Perand

Max Perand is a young officer in the Nice investigation whose work helps turn scattered leads into actionable inquiries, even as his casual habits repeatedly test Paul Darac’s patience. He notices connections, contributes hypotheses, and takes on demanding search work; but his yawns, jokes, and lapses in judgment expose the distance between being useful in conversation and being reliable in a murder-case report.

Identity and Introduction

Perand appears as one of the young officers working with Yvonne Flaco, initially assigned to a quota of interviews. When Alejo Busquet considers moving on to apartment houses, Darac advises him to check on the officers first rather than risk leaving them occupied all day. The brief exchange establishes the practical, supervised setting of Perand’s early work: he is part of a larger team, and the investigators’ progress depends on coordinating its less experienced members.

He later knocks on Darac’s open office door and brings him a note that confirms what Darac had been thinking. Perand’s arrival is unceremonious—he enters at an easy pace and scratches his armpit while handing over the message—but the note itself is useful. The contrast recurs throughout his characterization: informality does not prevent him from delivering information, though it can make his professional conduct seem less assured than the case demands.

Contributions to the Investigation

During a discussion about why Emil Florian was killed, Darac asks Perand for his thoughts. Perand proposes revenge, then interrupts himself with a yawn and explains that he has worked a double shift. He nevertheless returns to the question and suggests that the killing could be a revenge act. Darac treats the possibility as worth considering: a victim of sexual violence might seek justice personally when rapists go unpunished, and the use of a lethal injection, if confirmed, could resemble an execution. Perand’s proposal is a hypothesis, not a solved motive, but it helps give the investigation a line of inquiry.

Perand also contributes to the analysis of Florian’s phone. The team learns that Florian’s last call, made at 12:10 on the day he died, did not connect; it was also the last call he made, with no incoming calls before his death more than an hour later. Because the recipient occupied speed-dial key one, the number appeared to belong to someone particularly close to Florian. Perand suggests that it may have been Florian’s brother Jean, who lived in Paris, and notes that investigators there had found the number disconnected. Erica Lamarthe challenges the suggestion with a specific counterpoint: Florian had called the same number six times the previous day, and those calls had connected. Perand accepts the correction. The exchange shows both his willingness to offer a lead and his readiness to concede when the evidence weakens it.

When the team is considering what to do if a photograph of a woman seen with a trolley produces an identification while Flaco is at the hospital, Perand asks Darac what he should do. Darac responds incredulously, indicating that the question should not require instruction. The moment supplies a less flattering measure of Perand’s initiative: in an investigation that requires officers to respond quickly, he sometimes seeks direction where his colleagues expect him to exercise judgment.

That same photograph eventually helps identify Corinne Delage. Perand reports that a neighbour recognized the woman and called the police. Delage is sixty-nine, a widow, and lives near Stade du Ray; her record is extensive. Perand adds that she had previously admitted mixing poison into food, claiming that she meant to kill rats and that her dog, Fido, had eaten it by mistake. Although the dose was far beyond what would ordinarily be used against vermin, she had been believed and had not been caught again. The neighbour who identified her was not the former owner of the poisoned dog: that person had moved away years earlier. Perand is going to speak with Delage, this time without his older sister, and Darac tells him to do the job properly and keep in touch. His report supplies the background that makes the identification significant, while Darac’s instruction underscores the need for careful follow-through.

The ensuing interrogation takes place in the squad room, where Perand and Flaco question Delage across a table. Delage is not restrained, but her self-righteous manner contrasts with the record laid out before her. When Agnès Dantier enters, Perand pauses his question and resumes only after she nods; Delage then directs her attention toward the arriving superior, apparently treating Agnès as someone who might set matters right. Perand is present in the questioning, but the scene also shows how the arrival of a senior officer can alter the interview’s dynamics.

Teamwork and Professional Development

Perand’s work expands beyond interviews. When Darac organizes a search under a deadline of just over twenty-four hours, he assigns Flaco to coordinate phone searches and places her and Perand at the head of the teams. A colleague questions whether Perand is the right choice; Darac answers that Flaco will keep him on track. The appointment gives Perand responsibility, but the qualification attached to it makes clear that his effectiveness is expected to depend on Flaco’s supervision.

At 4:05 p.m., twenty clerical assistants and other officers are helping Perand and Flaco trace Mercedes van sales and hirings. Their coordinated effort produces an extensive list. Perand crosses out a directory entry and picks up the phone in one continuous movement, remarking that the assignment feels like working in a call centre. The detail places him inside repetitive, deadline-driven police work: his part is not a dramatic deduction but the patient conversion of a broad search into calls and checked entries.

Perand’s informal voice can also shade into irrelevance. After two colleagues leave a room together, he jokes privately to Darac that they look like storybook animal pairings, then starts another comparison before Darac’s look stops him. Perand clarifies that he only meant they looked funny together. Darac uses the incident to draw a sharp distinction between casual conversation and case documentation. He says he tolerates breaches of form and hierarchy, but that does not mean he will tolerate foolishness when the stakes are high; Perand’s written work need not yet match that of Roland Granot or Alejo Busquet, but it must record information clearly and concisely. Jokes, irrelevant comments, and ironic asides—especially the one about a one-horse town—could irritate readers, slow the investigation, or create confusion. Darac tells him not to include them again. Perand shrugs and answers, “Okay.” The reprimand is not about suppressing his personality in every setting; it is about ensuring that the official record remains usable.

Judgment and Narrative Role

In a later discussion of the case’s historical leads, Perand offers a more speculative possibility: perhaps Florian has no connection to the larger chain of events and was simply a random victim, used to test the poison. Darac paraphrases this as the idea of a “walking crash-test dummy,” appreciates the freedom of the thought, but judges the theory too risky to pursue as a working assumption. Perand’s suggestion keeps an alternative alive, while Darac’s response marks its evidentiary limit. The investigation has not yet established where Florian fits, and Perand’s conjecture cannot settle the question.

Across these episodes, Perand is neither merely comic relief nor a consistently incisive investigator. His guesses sometimes open useful possibilities, his reports help identify and investigate Delage, and he takes part in a substantial vehicle-search operation. At the same time, his fatigue, casual manner, uncertainty over a straightforward responsibility, and joking case notes invite correction. The novel uses that contrast to show the everyday discipline on which a complex investigation depends: clues must be proposed, checked, and then recorded in a form that other officers can trust. Perand’s development is defined less by a single breakthrough than by the pressure to turn energetic participation into precise professional work.