02/01/2016
This engrossing first in a French police series from Morfoot (Burksey) introduces jazz-loving Capt. Paul Darac. As Nice prepares for the Tour de France, a Muslim lies dead on a street outside a prayer room. Did an elderly lady, Corinne Delage, administer a lethal injection and cause the man’s death? Is there a connection to the Sons and Daughters of Just Cause who are threatening the Tour de France? And what about the suspicious rent boy/bodybuilder, Imanol Esquebel, who’s connected to the deceased and possibly involved in a pedophile ring? As Darac and his team interrogate and track suspects as well as search for clues, his boss, Agnès Dantier, and her father, Vincent, a former top cop, are kidnapped. Morfoot neatly juggles all the various plot strands. Some marital troubles serve to flesh out Darac’s character. This breezy, entertaining crime novel features more fascinating police work than thrills, but it’s an auspicious debut for Darac. Agent: Ian Drury, Sheil Land Associates (U.K.). (Apr.)
"A sprawling, ambitious series debut especially noteworthy for its attention to minor characters, its mix of byways and felonies, and its determination to throw every crime in the book at the Brigade Criminelle—except, presumably, the ones reserved for the sequels." - Kirkus Reviews
"Morfoot introduces a delightful example of the disenchanted French boulevardier" - Library Journal - Starred Review / Pick of the Month
"...breezy, entertaining crime novel features more fascinating police work than thrills, but it’s an auspicious debut." - Publishers Weekly
"procedural detail is impressive...the author’s portrait of Nice will delight fans of international crime; and his musings on the connection between jazz improvisation and detection will please music lovers." - Booklist
“Morfoot brings alive the Nice of intrigue and glamour, the soft light of Provencal evenings, and the seamy bouillabaisse of urban crime… A deeply satisfying feast” - Jim Kelly, award-winning author ofThe Water Clock
“Great plot, appealing hero, glorious setting plus taut writing – a real winner” - Martin Walker, bestselling author of the Bruno Courrèges novels
“A gripping, complex and fluently told story with a compelling sense of place and a troupe of well-formed and utterly believable characters” - Alison Joseph, author of the Sister Agnes mysteries
“If you are tired of bleak and dreary detective novels, pick this one up for a vibrant, satisfying read.” - The Crime Review
"I was genuinely impressed by Peter Morfoot's Impure Blood and its entertainment values. If you're in need of good and well written mystery fiction, please invest a bit of time into reading this novel." - Rising Shadow
04/01/2016
Paul Darac is a captain in Nice's Brigade Criminelle. His team is called out when a dead man in a white suit is found on a mat outside a Muslim prayer center. The victim, local teacher Emile Florian, is not a Muslim. No one knows why he was at the place of worship. And, on top of everything else, the Nice leg of the Tour de France has been threatened by a terrorist group, the Sons and Daughters of the Just Cause. Darac's boss, Agnès Dantier, is involved with the security detail for the tour, as is Darac's lieutenant, Roland Granot. Everyone's attention is scattered among too many objectives and too many suspects, not to mention old hatreds and revenge. VERDICT British author Morfoot (Burksey) introduces a delightful example of the disenchanted French boulevardier. Darac plays jazz in nightclubs and shows up at crime scenes with little sleep and a certain je ne sais quoi. However, he also possesses an impeccable eye for spotting lies and ferreting out the truth, while keeping one step ahead of his interfering boss's boss, the public prosecutor.
2016-02-04
Morfoot launches a new series by mixing international terrorism with threats much closer to home—and the home is Nice. Among the dozens of Muslims who've joined Hamid Toulé's outdoor prayer group on Rue Verbier, one of them, a man in a white suit, isn't praying; he isn't even alive. It doesn't matter that no one but elderly Corinne Delage, who bumped into him with her trolley, approached him in the moments before his death, because Emil Florian, a literature teacher at the Lycée Mossette, was injected with a lethal dose of poison a good half-hour earlier. Things rapidly get more complicated for Capt. Paul Darac of the Brigade Criminelle de Nice. The dead man, who was carrying a bottle of drug-laced water, was apparently a pedophile. Meanwhile, the city's preparations for the Tour de France, whose cyclists are scheduled to ride through town on their second day, are threatened by a group calling itself the Sons and Daughters of the Just Cause. Not content to send menacing messages, the Sons and Daughters kidnap retiring Commissaire Agnès Dantier and her father, retired Commissaire Vincent Dantier. Suspecting that the motive behind all this mayhem may be more personal than political, Darac looks more closely into Vincent Dantier's past and soon finds secrets so doomy that they almost make him forget the abrupt departure of his lover, Angeline, who maintains that his only strategies for addressing problems are playing his guitar, making love, and punching someone. As subsequent developments show, she has a point. A sprawling, ambitious series debut especially noteworthy for its attention to minor characters, its mix of byways and felonies, and its determination to throw every crime in the book at the Brigade Criminelle—except, presumably, the ones reserved for the sequels.
