2009, Baghdad. Emma Marsiac, a Mossad agent, disappears during an attack.

2016, United Kingdom. Julien Terreau, an undercover Israeli agent posing as a university professor, picks up her trail: she’s being held prisoner by Daesh in Syria. Julien manipulates one of his students, Souleymane, a Frenchman of Kurdish origin, to take an internship at the French embassy in Ankara, Turkey. The operation doesn’t go as planned.

2023, France. Victor, the son of a star television journalist, is kidnapped. His mother, Coralie, is Souleymane's former girlfriend. Commander Hadrien Grandvallier of the judicial police, the French counterintelligence services and Victor's parents race against time to find the child.

Why does the child’s kidnapping trigger an international diplomatic crisis involving French, Israeli and Turkish secret services? What happens when deeply buried secrets from the past resurface? And who are these figures in the night known as the Grey Wolves?

The Dead Never Return is a thriller about manipulation and deceit that crosses time and borders, from the Middle East to Samarkand.

"A thriller rooted in reality. Frighteningly effective." La Fringale Culturelle.

"A novel that takes us to the heart of intimate and geopolitical conflicts." Olivia Gartner, L'Esprit des Lettres

Nicolas-Raphaël Fouque is an author of thrillers (Even Bastards Can Love, An Old Affair, The Skull of Malpasset) and historical novels (The Kaphtor Saga). He is a senior civil servant and also teaches public law at the University of Montpellier.