Maxime Chattam | |
|---|---|
| Native name | Maxime Guy Sylvain Drouot |
| Born | 19th February 1976 |
| Occupation | Writer |
| Language | French |
| Genre | Fantasy and Mystery Novel |
Maxime Chattam
editMaxime Drouot, also known as Maxime Chattam or Maxime Williams is a French novelist born on 19th February 1976 in Herblay, Val d’Oise. Following criminology studies, he specialized in mystery novels.
Biography
editOver the course of his childhood, Maxime Chattam frequently went to the United States of America: he first went to Portland, Oregon in 1987. He drew inspiration from this city to write his first novel.
Maxime attended school first in Montesquieu college in Herblay and then in University Paris XIII-North. During his teenage years, as he wanted to become an actor, he took acting lessons at Cours Simon in Paris. He obtained TV and advertisement roles.
In 1988, he spent some time in the Thai jungle. At that time, he wrote a journal relating his very first experience with writing. He continued in the early nineties with his first literary essays. They were at first inspired by Stephen King, notably by the movie Stand By Me derived from the novella “The Body” in the collection of novellas entitled “Different seasons”. He began to write his first novel, “le Coma des mortels” (Mortal Coma), which relates one-month in the shoes of a young man plunged into a coma after being injured in an accident which is in fact an attempted murder.
He went back to his modern literature studies. He wrote “le Cinquième Règne” (The Fifth Reign), published in 2003 as Maxime Williams. This novel was rewarded with fantasy novel Prize at the Gérardmer festival. He took a criminology training course for a year at Saint-Denis University. During this year, he learned the basics of criminal psychology, Technical and Scientific police and of legal medicine.
L’Âme du mal (The Sould of Evil) (2002), was written as Chattam, with reference to a little town of Louisiana) tells the investigation led by Joshua broil, defector of the FBI within the police department in Portland, Oregon, helped by a young psychology student. A killer slaughtered seems to have rose from the dead maiming his victims with a ritual way and leaving hints from Satanic Bible.
The second part of this trilogy on evil, in which Brolin's character is the main theme, “In Tenebris” (2003), plunges the reader into the darkness of New York. A woman found scalped and traumatized claims that she has just returned from Hell. With the help of Joshua Brolin, who has resigned from the police, Officer Annabel O'Donnel is leading the investigation. But in the face of the multiplication of crimes, they quickly abandoned the simple lead of a serial killer: the killer did not act alone. In ‘”Maléfices” (Curses) (2004), Brolin and O'Donnel are confronted with a serial killer who mummifies his victims in spider silk.
He then wrote a prequel to his Trilogie du Mal (Trilogy of Evil), “La Promesse des Tenèbres” (The Promise of Darkness). The hero of this novel is Brady O'Donnel, the husband of the police inspector with whom Josh Brolin collaborates in “In Tenebris”.
Its publisher reports that it has sold 7 million copies of its books since 2001
Maxime Chattam is a member of the artist collective : La Ligue de l'Imaginaire.
Private Life
editMaxime Chattam is married to Faustine Bollaert. They have one daughter, Abbie, born in 2013, and one son, Peter, born in 2015.