Between Two Worlds is a powerful and contemporary novel by Olivier Norek, whose gritty urban Parisian Police Banlieues trilogy is amongst my favourite books.

Adam Sirkis is a Captain in Assad's military police ,fearing that his role as a covert member of a rebel group opposed to the regime has been exposed he decides to leave Syria with his wife and young daughter. Thinking his time has come he messages his wife to tell her to go ahead and take the trafficker's boat to Libya without him,assuring her that they'd meet up in Europe.

Adam does eventually find his way to Europe and the the infamous "Jungle" refugee camp in Calais. Obsessed with finding his wife and child Adam spends his days passing their picture around the camp to no avail.

Police Lieutenant Bastien Miller has just moved to Calais for family reasons and is shocked by what he sees of the Jungle.....and the lack of any enthusiasm shown by his team who are weary of the constant and ongoing problems it brings.
When Adam saves a young lad from a horrific ordeal in the camp he meets Bastien ,who approaches him to pass on information from inside the camp.

This is a terrific read that gives a great insight into the Jungle itself,the different factions,the violence and the general sense of hopelessness. It tells of the people of Calais,bitter and angry as roaming groups of refugees deter tourists and crash local house prices and the frustrated police battling attempts to jump into the backs of trucks night after night.

The book pulls no punches,life in the Jungle and the experiences of the refugees on their journeys is often both brutal and shocking. It's not predictable and there is more than one abrupt twist in the storyline that comes out of leftfield and is genuinely shocking.

This is an exceptional book,the best one I've read in 2024 so far and I've read a lot of excellent books this year by some very big name authors.

If you like Dennis Lehane you'll love this, a very similar style of story and every bit as good as anything he's written.