Murderous Mistral

July 10, 2017
Peter Mayle fans will welcome this promising series launch from German author Rademacher (The Murderer in Ruins). Solving a political corruption case earns Paris gendarme Roger Blanc a punitive transfer to the south of France. His wife remains in Paris with her lover as Blanc moves into a decrepit house in Sainte-Françoise-la-Vallée and joins the tiny hamlet’s police force. The resentful commandant partners him with Marius Tonon, an alcoholic underachiever obsessed with a 20-year-old killing. When the suspect from that case is discovered shot and burned in a garbage dump, Blanc and Tonon take on the investigation, supervised by a judge who happens to be the wife of the minister who arranged Blanc’s transfer. As the seasonal mistral blows through the parched countryside, wounded hero Blanc and his unlikely sidekick navigate political and social minefields in pursuit of a ruthless killer. The appealing locale, pervaded by the scent of wild thyme, and the charming residents of Sainte-Françoise-la-Vallée make up for some uneven pacing.

July 15, 2017
Criminal misdeeds turn out to be just as devious in charming Provence as in the mean streets of Paris.Shortly after exposing government corruption, Parisian police captain Roger Blanc is summoned by the minister of state and transferred to the south of France, effective immediately. Fortunately, Blanc inherited a house in Provence from his uncle a decade ago. The house is dilapidated, the local gendarmerie not much better. Blanc's new boss, Commandant Nicolas Nkoulou, is obsessed with tidiness and regulations, and his new partner, Marius Tonon, is mostly interested in chatting and maintaining his connections to the community. Also on the police staff is attractive tech expert Fabienne Souillard, with whom the divorced Blanc has an undeniable chemistry. Their first case together revolves around a corpse found near a garbage dump, burned and still smoking. Evidence suggests to Tonon that the victim is Charles Moreas, a member of a notorious gang responsible for a spate of highway robberies and a target of police for years. In their meticulous probe, Blanc and Tonon talk to a skeptical judge, a droll German painter who lived next door to Moreas, and the slick mayor, who wants nothing to overshadow the public relations rollout of an upcoming event. Solid leads are few and far between, though there is no dearth of suspects or, for that matter, shady behavior in paradise. When a prime suspect dies in a suspicious boating accident, who can doubt that the cases are connected? Rademacher (The Wolf Children, 2017, etc.) writes with quiet authority, methodically filling in pieces of the puzzle and laying a solid foundation for further clever whodunits with a strong supporting cast.

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Starred review from August 1, 2017

Capitaine Roger Blanc was a little too good in his anticorruption investigations and has been banished from Paris to the South of France. His marriage can't stand the strain, and he finds himself alone in a small Provencal village, living in a 200-year-old hovel. He's teamed with Lieutenant Tonon, a disgraced officer who comes in late and drinks on the job but knows the local politics. He also knows that a murder victim found shot and burned in the dump lived locally, and the two men now have a murder to solve. Even though the most judicious and politically astute action would be to close the case quickly, Blanc doesn't take shortcuts. When there's a second death, he ventures into dangerous territory, aware of the possibility that his actions could destroy his career. Rademacher, short-listed for the Crime Writers' Association International Dagger Award (for The Murderer in Ruins), has written a carefully plotted police procedural that vividly captures the landscape and scents of Provence while introducing Blanc and a small group of colleagues. VERDICT The police action and political connections will attract fans of Jeffrey Siger's police novels set in Greece. [See Prepub Alert, 3/23/17; library marketing.]--LH

Copyright 2017 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

August 1, 2017

Capitaine Roger Blanc was a little too good in his anticorruption investigations and has been banished from Paris to the South of France. His marriage can't stand the strain, and he finds himself alone in a small Provencal village, living in a 200-year-old hovel. He's teamed with Lieutenant Tonon, a disgraced officer who comes in late and drinks on the job but knows the local politics. He also knows that a murder victim found shot and burned in the dump lived locally, and the two men now have a murder to solve. Even though the most judicious and politically astute action would be to close the case quickly, Blanc doesn't take shortcuts. When there's a second death, he ventures into dangerous territory, aware of the possibility that his actions could destroy his career. Rademacher, short-listed for the Crime Writers' Association International Dagger Award (for The Murderer in Ruins), has written a carefully plotted police procedural that vividly captures the landscape and scents of Provence while introducing Blanc and a small group of colleagues. VERDICT The police action and political connections will attract fans of Jeffrey Siger's police novels set in Greece. [See Prepub Alert, 3/23/17; library marketing.]--LH

Copyright 2017 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from August 1, 2017
Roger Blanc built an impressive record in the anticorruption unit of the Paris police, but the promotion he's expecting after uncovering a former trade minister's scheme turns out to be a transfer to a career wasteland: Gadet, in the south of France. Roger's new boss is unenthusiastic about taking on a Parisian castoff, and Roger's new partner, Tonon, appears to be a wine-soaked untouchable. Their first case bears the hallmarks of a standard Marseille drug killing; the victim's body was riddled with bullets and set ablaze. But before Roger and Tonon can hand the case off to the Marseille police, the victim is identified as local bully and thief Charles Moreas. The suspects are numerous: neighbors terrified by Moreas' bullying; the prominent builder Moreas argued with shortly before his death; and even Tonon, who's been obsessed with convicting Moreas of a decades-old robbery and murder. A subsequent murder finds Roger forced to wade into the region's treacherous political swamp. Readers will be as captivated by Rademacher's description of Blanc's adjustment to village life as they will by the well-constructed mystery. Highly recommended for fans of international crime fiction, especially Mark Pryor's Hugo Marston series and Peter Morfoot's Paul Darac procedurals.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)