In the early 1990s he wrote his first novel, a thriller set around the
Normandy landings, which was rejected by several publishing houses. He then wrote short stories, but they too were rejected. Ten years later, inspired by a trip to
Rome at the peak of popularity of
Dan Brown's
The Da Vinci Code and after reading
Arsène Lupin by
Maurice Leblanc, Bussi returned to
Rouen with his
IGN papers and resumed work on his manuscript until in 2006, as
Code Lupin, it found an academic publisher, Éditions des Falaises. The first manuscript was reworked nine times. Bussi's first novel,
Code Lupin, sold more than copies, and in 2010 was serialised over thirty days by the
Paris Normandie daily newspaper. In 2007, his second novel,
Omaha Crimes, won the ("Blood Writing Prize") of the town of
Vienne, Isère, the 2008 prize for first detective novel at
Lens, Pas-de-Calais, the 2008 schools writing prize at
Caen, the 2008 Octave-Mirbeau prize at the
Trévières Literary Festival, and the 2008 Ancres Noires by
Le Havre. In 2008, his third novel, ("Death on the
Seine"), was published to coincide with the Rouen Regatta. It sold several thousand copies within weeks. It won the Basse-Normandie Regional Committee Prize (Queen Mathilde Prize). In 2009, his fourth novel, ("Family Blood"), aimed at both an adult and teenage audience, was published. In 2010, he contributed to the ("Colours of the Moment") anthology of short stories with ("Do you remember my Anaïs?"), set in
Veules-les-Roses and based on the "legend" of Anaïs Aubert. The same year, he changed publishers to
Presses de la Cité. His novel ("Black Waterlilies"), a cloak-and-dagger thriller set in
Giverny, the home of
Claude Monet, was published on 20 January 2011. It was critically praised and became a best seller, winning the Readers' Award at the Cognac Thriller Festival, the Mediterranean Thriller Prize at the Villeneuve-lès-Avignon Festival, and the Michel Lebrun Grand Prize of the 25th hour of Le Mans, the Readers' Priye at Sang d'Encre of Vienne, and the Gustave Flaubert Grand Prize of the Norman Writers' Guild, becoming the best-selling French detective novel of 2011. It was issued in paperback on 5 September 2013. In January 2012, his novel
Un avion sans elle ("After the Crash"), his first work to be set outside of Normandy, was published by
Presses de la Cité. The critic Gérald Collard called it the thriller of the year. In its first year of publication it was awarded the Maison de la Presse award, the Popular Novel Award and Best French-language Detective Novel (at Montigny-Les-Cormeilles). Within months of release, it had sold 500,000 copies in France and has since sold over one million copies. It has been sold in translation in 34 countries worldwide including Spain, Germany, Italy, Russia, Poland, Bulgaria, Hungary, Japan, Korea, Lithuania, Portugal, Taiwan, United Kingdom, Israel, Brazil, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Norway, Greece, Turkey, Netherlands, Vietnam, Latvia, Romania and Serbia. From September 2013, it was serialised daily in ''
l'Est Républicain'' for over 200 days. A four episode TV adaptation will be broadcast in 2019 on
M6. In March 2013, La Cité published Michel Bussi's seventh novel, ("Don't Let Go of My Hand"). The novel takes place on the tropical island of
Réunion and revolves around a woman who disappears from her hotel room. Her husband, suspected of her murder, runs away with their daughter, and is pursued by the police. The novel was a finalist for the 2012 Relay Travellers' Award for May 2012, a finalist for the Grand Prix for Detective Fiction and won the 2013 Island Novel Award. In 2014, it was released in paperback by Pocket. A TV adaptation for
TF1 is in production. In May 2014, La Cité published his eighth novel, ''N'oublier jamais
("Never forget"). In 2014, Bussi was the fifth bestselling French author, selling 843,000 books. In 2015, his novel Maman a tort'' ("Mother is Wrong") was published. In May 2018, a 6 episode TV adaptation was broadcast on
France 2. In 2015, Bussi was the third bestselling French author, selling over 1 million books. In 2016, Bussi was the second bestselling French author, selling 1,135,300 books. In 2017, he was the third bestselling French author, selling 931,000 books. In 2018, he was the second bestselling French author, selling 975,800 books. In 2021, he was the fourth best-selling French author, selling 721,000 books. In 2024, he was the tenth bestselling French author, selling 525,478 books. == Bibliography ==