The Awkward Squad - Hardcover

"Capestan's crew positively sparkle with life, and it is full of very lively humor."--Shots Magazine

"This summer's crime read."--Cosmopolitan UK

"A scintillating read . . . We are already hooked."--Elle UK

"Both amusing and interesting to watch this awkward squad gradually acquiring an esprit de corps . . . This very enjoyable tale has deservingly won several French literary prizes."--Literary Review

"Readers who appreciate quirky and interesting characters with their mysteries will find much to savor in this series launch, which is as much about a crew of police rejects as the crimes they investigate."
--Library Journal


"A ragtag group of cops whom nobody else wants get their own squad. Could be a sitcom. Could be noir. Could be the first entry in this smart Parisian mystery series."
--Booklist

"A marvelous French police procedural laced with subtle--and sometimes, not so subtle--humor about a squad of assorted losers who cannot be fired . . . An absorbing, sometimes laugh-out-loud, mystery laced with some graphic scenes of violence's aftermath. One can only sincerely hope that this is the first title in a very long series."
--D.R. Meredith, New York Journal of Books


"Misfit Paris cops bring an entertaining collection of idiosyncrasies to the newly formed cold-case team headed by impetuous detective Anne Capestan--though the fun has to stop as they start to piece together evidence of serious corruption in high places."--Crime Club

"Hénaff's debut, an amusingly literal Parisian version of Jussi Adler-Olsen's tales about Copenhagen's equally marginal Department Q, combines conscientious mystery mongering with good, somewhat clean fun."
--Kirkus Reviews


"Hénaff's fun first novel offers a wry look at Parisian policing and the infinite twists of the bureaucracy . . . Commissaire Anne Capestan, her career on tenterhooks for her role in the shooting of a suspect, takes charge of a cold-case squad populated by departmental castoffs who can't be fired but refuse to quit. Starting with a sense of wounded pragmatism that gives way to an increasingly focused joy of the hunt, Capestan marshals [the] team."
--Publishers Weekly

A new crime series with a difference: a brilliant police officer joins forces with a team of misfits to investigate decades-old unsolved crimes.