The scene took place in a courtroom at the Rennes Criminal Court on Tuesday. In the middle of his plea demolishing a 34-year-old Georgian man on trial for “voluntary abstention from preventing a crime,” Me William Pineau lost his temper. “My clients have always shown restraint, refusing to speak. They were very surprised to learn that a book was going to be published about the case. Yes, I am talking about what was written by Caryl Férey. It is a mediocre work that should never have been written. This book is an insult to Magali.” Behind the lawyer for Magali Blandin’s family, the sister and parents of this woman murdered in 2021 first nodded their heads, as if in approval, before bursting into tears.
Faced with the impossible mourning, the release of this book entitled Magali written by the famous master of crime fiction Caryl Férey has hurt them “really badly”. “The family was not contacted and they are in total disagreement with this work. They took it extremely badly,” explained Me Pineau as they left the courtroom, before adding another layer. “Caryl Férey dares to present this as a tribute book! But it is downright shameful. I don’t even understand how someone can commit such a scam,” thundered the lawyer. A few minutes later, the three defendants from Georgia were sentenced for their role in this abominable femicide.
A tragedy in the village where he grew up
This book, so criticized by the lawyer, was published in September by Robert Laffont. Magali stands out in Caryl Férey’s bibliography. Known for his dark thrillers like Zulu Or Mapuchethe French author is used to traveling far from his Breton lands to find inspiration. But not for his latest work, where he decided to return to the village of his childhood in Montfort-sur-Meu, in Ille-et-Vilaine. A town “where nothing happens”. Except on February 11, 2021, when this small town of 6,000 inhabitants was the scene of the murder of Magali Blandin.
This 42-year-old mother of four was killed by her husband Jérôme Gaillard, who could not bear the separation. Described as “under his influence”, she had decided to leave the family home in Montauban-de-Bretagne a few months earlier to settle in Montfort-sur-Meu, a few kilometres away. After inventing impossible stories and then confessing, Jérôme Gaillard committed suicide in prison, like his parents who covered up his crime and agreed to finance it.

This highly publicized femicide clearly left its mark on Caryl Férey, prompting him to investigate in the town of his childhood, on the advice of his publisher. Three and a half years after the murder and a few weeks after the only trial in the case, the author explained that he wanted to “bring Magali out of oblivion” but also “give her back her humanity, her dignity.” “I didn’t want it to be a number on the sad list of femicides,” he explained everywhere. The problem is that at no point in his book does he pay tribute to her. And at no point did he contact her family to talk about it. Quite simply because Caryl Férey couldn’t find anyone who would agree to talk to him about this story. “In Montfort-sur-Meu, no one knew her. They closed doors to me,” he explained on Arte. Not a surprise, since the special needs teacher had only lived there for two months.
The crime writer found only interlocutors, thanks to his sister working at West Francelocal journalists who had followed the case and who had agreed to meet him. In his book, Caryl Férey, who did not wish to answer our questions, talks more about his childhood, his vision of the evolution of his commune. A book rather critically acclaimed moreover, including by our readers’ club, who see it as a dive into a fascinating news story in an original literary style. Because in his book, the writer tells everything about his meager investigation. But he says it himself, he doesn’t have much. And that is probably the problem. Those who criticize the work dare to say something like this reader on the Babelio site: “A commissioned work that doesn’t hide itself.”
Killer’s lawyer questioned at length
To pad out the book by barely 170 pages, Caryl Férey devoted the last twenty pages to a long interview with… the murderer’s lawyer. Rather strange when you want to pay tribute to the victim of a femicide. “I hesitated a lot before saying yes. I had warned him that I didn’t want to talk about Magali Blandin, because I didn’t know her,” explains Jean-Guillaume Le Mintier.

The criminal lawyer explains that he accepted the interview to talk about his role as a lawyer in this case that had particularly affected him. “I had gone to the scene of the discovery of the body and I was defending an indefensible man. Then, I had to face the death of my client, the funeral, in front of his children. This case had damaged me, I had been criticized, my children had been affected. I wanted to settle scores with myself and with others,” continues the lawyer. Me Le Mintier explains that he did not know at the time that the book would be titled Magali. And readily admits that the least he could have done would have been to warn the family.
When contacted, Robert Laffont Publishing did not wish to answer our questions. They specify that they are in contact with Magali Blandin’s family and prefer to reserve their explanations for her, as does the author.