French Crime Fiction

When an English expat is brutally murdered, his charred corpse left on a Loire Valley hillside, the police turn to juge d’instruction Matthieu Lombard to find the killer.

Instead, Lombard discovers a wealth of secrets, grudges and feuds in the idyllic town of Saint-Genèse-sur-Loire. He begins to suspect that the remaining members of the Comité des Fêtes know more about the death than they are letting on. But rather than towards an arrest, each clue he uncovers seems to point in one, unexpected direction: Joan of Arc.

Is the answer to the murder hiding in the barroom gossip of the Lion d’Or? Or in another century altogether?

Mathilde has always been a headstrong woman. A member of the French resistance when she was just eighteen years old, she both impressed and horrified everyone with her cool capacity for violence. Now it is 1985 and Mathilde is in her sixties.

She is not as glamorous as she once was, but she continues to take great pride in all that she does. Recently, however, the sixty-three-year-old has been affected by loss of memory and erratic changes in mood that even her exasperated dog Ludo has noticed. This is a potentially dangerous situation, since Mathilde now makes her living as a contract killer...

Jean-Baptiste Adamsberg is not like other policemen. His methods appear unorthodox in the extreme: he doesn't search for clues; he ignores obvious suspects and arrests people with cast-iron alibis; he appears permanently distracted. In spite of all this his colleagues are forced to admit that he is a born cop.

When strange blue chalk circles start appearing overnight on the pavements of Paris, only Adamsberg takes them - and the increasingly bizarre objects found within them - seriously. And when the body of a woman with her throat savagely cut is found in one, only Adamsberg realises that other murders will soon follow…

Manfred Baumann is a loner. Socially awkward and ill at ease, he spends his evenings surreptitiously observing Adèle Bedeau, the sullen but alluring waitress at his local bistro. But one day, she vanishes into thin air.

When Detective Georges Gorski begins investigating her disappearance, Manfred’s repressed world is shaken to its core and he is forced to confront the dark secrets of his past. The Disappearance of Adèle Bedeau effortlessly conjures up an otherworldly atmosphere that simultaneously intrigues and unsettles.

In Paul Halter’s The Fourth Door, the impossible becomes reality. A haunted room. An unbroken seal. A murder victim whose very identity is an enigma. And then, a second death in a house surrounded by untrodden snow. Both crimes defy reason—but master detective Dr. Alan Twist reveals that even the most baffling mysteries have rational explanations.

This locked-room mystery, Paul Halter's debut, won the Prix de Cognac in 1988.

Bruno Courreges, the protagonist of Martin Walker's internationally acclaimed mystery series, is not only the local police chief of the idyllic village of St Denis. Bruno also happens to be an impressive amateur chef, and in this delightful new cookbook, the culinary and cultural inspiration behind Bruno's fiction world comes to life. Featuring local recipes, charming anecdotes, and a history of its French setting, Bruno's Cookbook invites readers into the bucolic life of Walker and his wife, Julia, and showcases their passion for the region's rich cuisine. Brimming with truffles, pate, top quality fruit and vegetables, famed regional cheeses and wines, the Perigord is a gourmet's paradise. Bruno's Cookbook includes over 90 recipes, steeped in local flavours and prepared in Walker's large country kitchen, from Duck Breast Fillets with Honey and Mustard, Red Onion Tarte Tatin, and a classic Beef Pot Roast, to Chard Gratin (Bruno's comfort meal), Hazelnut Meringue Cake, and Homemade Blackcurrant Liqueur.

Centred on the splendid institution of the village market, the recipes are organised around the people who provide the food: the fisherman, the hunter, the cheesemaker, the forager, the baker, and the winemaker. A feast for the senses, Bruno's Cookbook transports readers to France's gastronomic heartland.