Houtsiplou, like its synonym Macapète, refers to an imaginary, remote place, in the middle of nowhere, far away from all civilisation, populated by uncultured and illiterate residents.
The French noun "chique" (quid of tobacco) is the source of many local expressions. In a literal sense, the word means a piece of chewing tobacco, or a sweet, a kind of candy.
Nadine Monfils, a Belgian writer and film director, has embarked on a cosy mystery, a detective genre in which a murder is used as a pretext for the investigation of a male, or more often female, amat