Yesterday I told you all about how DS Automobiles had worked with the author Joel Dicker on creating a special one off story for them and today I get to actually tell you all about it. In keeping with the idea of the whole campaign being about the visual story (which is also the story behind the story if you will) I will also share the first webisode and the first chapter too, before leaving you to go and find more. I feel very digital and thoroughly modern with all this going on. So, to the novella For Insiders Only…
It is a normal quiet day on the banks of the river Seine with tourists checking the sites of Paris in it’s autumnal beauty when suddenly there is a commotion. It seems a man has been thrown or pushed into the river, though no one sees how this happened or if anyone was involved. Someone who becomes involved is Inspector Paul Roman of the First Judicial Police Division who is a great believer that it is the little, sometimes slightly quirky, cases that often need the most looking into. When it turns out that the man who ended up in the Seine, Frank Hord, had GHB in system and his colleague, Gut, has gone missing, Roman feels like this might be one of those more unusual cases. His suspicions seem to be correct when he receives a call from a fellow policeman from the edge of the Black Forest, who is working on a case with some similarities.
‘I received a note concerning a citizen of Stuttgart, drugged with GHB and who was the victim of an attempted murder last night,’ Weg said. ‘Is that correct?’
‘Yes, he was thrown in the Seine. He doesn’t remember anything.’
‘I’m wondering if it could be linked to a series of other suspicious deaths that have just occurred here in Stuttgart,’ said Weg. ‘A week ago, four men were found dead, drowned in a lake in the Black Forest. All showed signs of GHB in their blood. I’m the one handling the investigation. I thought they’d drowned, but now I’m wondering if they might have been murdered.’
Because it is a novella, I don’t want to give too much away but what I will say is that as you read on more and more twists and turns follow. There are masked ‘libertine’ festivals, secrets in the forest, questions of hidden sexual desires and much more as Roman, with Weg (which he finds most annoying) in tow, tries to solve the riddle of attempted murder and mass murder and if the two really are connected. I was gripped throughout and loved how such a modern story had such a dark little heart.
As I mentioned above, and indeed yesterday, what is so great (I think) about the campaign around For Insiders Only is that you get to see how each of the five chapters is crafted before you read them. You get to see what is inside the mind of the author, what inspires the incidents that unfolds and what ideas are spawned and never used. You get the story behind the story, press play to see it…
Because I am being so lovely and generous today, and filled with the remnants of all the joie de vivre from my trip to Paris last week, here is a link to the first chapter once you have watched the first webisode above. You can then pop to see the next one (and then all the other instalments ahead when they go live) by following the link here.
So what do you think? Are you a fan of the interactive story? Do you like the fact that you get to see the story behind the story? Should other companies be doing the same thing and giving us stories in new or unusual ways? All thoughts, as always, welcome.
Savidge Reads 