Book Club

The Lying-Down Room

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“I love Paris in the summer when it sizzles”, goes the old song. Certainly, the August heat is a trial for Chief Inspector Serge Morel as he tries to solve a puzzling and brutal series of murders. Not only is Morel finding the temperature a…
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Midnight in Europe by Alan Furst

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World War II is yet to start, but fascist forces in Germany and Italy are making ominous declarations, and General Franco’s nationalist army is fighting a civil war with the Spanish Republic. The Republic maintains fragile control over Madrid and Barcelona, but they are starved…
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The Lying-Down Room by Anna Jaquiery

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The Lying Down Room introduces us to the charismatic and dedicated Chief Inspector Serge Morel. The story opens in Paris in the stifling August heat, and Morel is called to examine a disturbing crime scene. An elderly woman has been brutally murdered to the soundtrack…
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Book Club

The Dark Angel

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Paris. The present day. A bureau de change is robbed by a quartet of villains from a run down banlieue défavorisée. When the girlfriend of one of the crooks is brutally murdered, Lieutenant Jerome Barthelmy from the 10th arrondisement police becomes involved. His efforts to…
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Dog Will Have His Day by Fred Vargas

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Translated by Sian Reynolds — A four-time winner of the CWA International Dagger, Fred Vargas is arguably France’s finest contemporary crime writer. With every book, you enter a familiar fictional landscape that is not quite reality but rather a uniquely Gallic mélange of the whimsical,…
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Murder in Pigalle by Cara Black

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I discovered Cara Black’s feisty Parisian heroine Aimée Leduc after my first stint of living in France, when I was back home and longing for my morning croissant at my neighbourhood café. So, from personal experience, I can confirm that this series is perfect for…
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Irène

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Written by Pierre Lemaitre, translated by Frank Wynne — The first Pierre Lemaitre book to be translated into English, Alex, was one of my top reads of 2013 and a deserving joint winner of the CWA International Dagger. It shared the award with the Ghost…
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