The Rare Earth Exchange (Larivière Espionage Thrillers – Book 2) by Bernard Besson

274 Pages
Publisher: LeFrench Book
Release Date: June 28, 2016

Fiction (Adult), General Fiction (Adult), Mystery, Thrillers

Pierre-Andre Noblecourt, the former president, was at the airport. His flight was arriving from Kuala Lumpur when it exploded upon arrival. Some passengers were lucky to get out without injuries. Later that morning, his wife, Georgette, found him hanging in their apartment.

A high-power Chinese attorney living in Malaysia, Emma Wong, was also a victim in the attack. She was well known for her work stopping sex slavery and prostitution rings of minors. Recently she was involved assisting in the purchase of two French submarines.

Subterfuge, political murder, and illegal trading are all tied together with the U.S. government and software. The book has a steady pace, the characters are developed, and it is written in the third person point of view. This book kept my attention and if you like political thrillers, you will enjoy this book.

I received this book so long ago. I never was given any information from the publisher as to how these loans worked. I never had the chance to read this book before it disappeared from my library. I'm sorry that I didn't understand back then that there was a time limit on how long I could keep the book and that a review was required. I've learned a lot since then. I wish the publisher had been more specific at the time. I'm sure this is a fine book.

I would recommend it for those who like mysteries. I loved it and it touched on stuff that most people don't think of.. mainly that there are some some rare minerals used for high tech stuff

VERDICT: Complex spy story involving international cybercrimes. Smart, suspenseful, geeky, it will keep you on the edge of your seat.

I introduced you to Bernard Besson in 2013 when I reviewed The Greenland Breach.
Now an award-winning thriller writer, he is “a former top-level chief of staff of the French intelligence services, an eminent specialist in economic intelligence and Honorary General Controller of the French National Police. He was involved in dismantling Soviet spy rings in France and Western Europe when the USSR fell and has real inside knowledge from his work auditing intelligence services and the police.”
So this guy knows what he is talking about in his novels!
Like The Greenland Breach, The Rare Earth Exchange is a spy thriller set in the web of international terrorism and corruption.


The book opens with a major plane accident: after having been hacked, an Airbus A340 coming from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, goes in flames after landing in Orly, Paris.
John Spencer Larivière (already met in The Greenland Breach) and his wife Victoire are interrupted in the midst of their young son baptism celebration to investigate. The couple and their geeky friend Luc run Fermatown, a private intelligence agency.
Then shortly after, former French president Noblecourt, who had pretended to be on that very flight, is discovered by his wife Georgette, hanging in his office. Suicide? Murder? Why?
What’s really the connection between the Noblecourts and Malaysia?
As the Fermatown team digs deeper, they found themselves stuck in a huge and very dangerous web, involving many countries, many high profile political figures (ambassadors, ministers of home and foreign affairs, defense ministers, plus a Chinese lawyer working on high-profile crimes), terrorists and crooks.
Can they even trust Noblecourt’s wife, who seems to be lying? As for Claudine Montluzac, a police chief also investigating, it’s not until the very end that they’ll know for sure on which side she stands.
The plot gets more and more involved. You’d better make a list of characters to keep track.
There are also a lot of different groups:
Chronosphere, a Paris-based company specializing in precision industrial clocks;
G. Terres, an international organization to regulate rare-earths market;
Palatinate, a powerful credit-rating agency).
Yes, there’s a connection between all of these, and many more, such as for instance a kickback scheme related to the sale of French submarines to Malaysia.
If you go over the hurdle of the complexity and multiplicity of actors involved, you will find the book very enjoyable, with all kinds of cool geeky details – for instance how to protect your phone from being detected.
I discovered a lot about cybertechnology, cybercrimes and cyberterrorism. There’s so much out there we don’t even imagine could exist! I also learned about virtual autopsies, which I had never heard about before.
And there were neat descriptions of Kuala Lumpur, though I’m not sure what I found out would give me the desire to visit.

4 and 1 / 2 Stars

This book is very well written, and the translation is excellent. The characters are believable and have depth.

The opening scene is horrific and all too real in today’s world. A plane incoming to Orly airport has downloaded a virus that causes a fire and much devastation and death. The retired president of France, Pierre-Andre Noblecourt, is returning from Kuala Lumpur having visited his son-in-law. Was he on the plane that crashed? Or was he not?

The employees of Fermatown, Victoire Augagneur, her husband, John Spencer Larivière and Luc Masseron are called by the current president to get to the bottom of things.

Then the former president is found dead at his home. The former president’s wife, Georgette, acts a little strange at first. Why did she not contact the police right away? During this investigation, the Fermatown team meets all sorts of interesting people including the ten-year old granddaughter of the former president. Beatrice is both bright and perceptive and was a great character.

Their investigation takes them to Kuala Lumpur and other points to track down the terrorists who brought down the plane and have committed other acts throughout the world. As an aside, the president’s plane is a wonder.

This is a fast paced and very thrilling ride through today’s politics and it is very real. The technology described is accurate and very important to the story.

I want to say hats off to Le French Books for their commitment to bringing French writers to English speakers. There are some wonderful French authors out there who deserved to be heard in the English-speaking world. This book was shortlisted for the 2015 Quais du Polar Series Prize. Gee, I wonder who won it?

I am sending a very big thanks to Netgalley and Le French Books for forwarding to me a copy of this great book for me to read.