It is worthy to note that the boom in the French-language Algerian detective novel, Yasmina Khadra being the best representative thereof, occurred in the 90’s, in a country beset by unprecedented violence including attacks the civilian population is hard hit with. In this context, the city of Algiers, its streets, monuments, neighborhoods both rich and poor that create the setting of the majority of these novels, emerges as the ultimate metaphor for the death throes of a people and a history. Death figures, be they individual or collective, haunt the city whose bloodied new map they sketch.