Death in the Truffle Wood: A Mystery in Provence

by Pierre Magnan

Overview

Long a renowned crime writer in France, Pierre Magnan has won numerous prizes and has a huge popular following in his native country. Now, with this mouthwatering series debut, Magnan introduces the celebrated Commissaire Laviolette to U.S. readers.

In a small, peaceful village in Provence, the principal source of income is the cultivation and sale of truffes. When Commissaire Laviolette arrives to investigate why several of the town's citizens are missing, it isn't long before their bodies turn up. It takes all of the detective's ingenuity to unravel crimes whose origins are as old as the truffe woods.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780312367190
Publisher:	St. Martin's Publishing Group
Publication date:	09/02/2008
Series:	Commissaire Laviolette Mystery , #1
Edition description:	First Edition
Pages:	208
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.20(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Pierre Magnan is an award-winning French crime writer. Death in the Truffle Wood was his first Commissaire Laviolette mystery to be published in the United States. He is also the author of The Messengers of Death and The Murdered House, published by Thomas Dunne Books/St. Martin's Minotaur.

Editorial Reviews

Delightful . . . brings to life the quirky, earthy peasant culture of the Provence region.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“An intellectual feast . . . worthy of that other master of the French mystery, Georges Simenon. A winner.” —Richmond Times-Dispatch

“Amusing…truly chilling…Magnan should easily find a niche with American readers who enjoy atmospheric, well-plotted mysteries. The Gallic charm doesn't hurt either.” —Denver Post

“Delightful and unusual . . . successfully combines elements of Christie's old-fashioned gentility and Mayle's French pastoral. . . . [W]ill please both mystery readers and Provence lovers.” —Booklist

“Whether you like truffes or pigs, it is diffcult to imagine anyone not relishing this savory dish of a book.” —Washington Times

“Delectably venal . . . consistently excellent and exquisitely descriptive. Vive Laviolette! Vive Magnan!” —Mystery Scene Magazine

“Deliciously rambles among quirky members of the populace and often macabre aspects of the case. . . . Smartly sublime entertainment.” —Kirkus Reviews

“A classic murder mystery.” —Indianapolis Star

From the Publisher

The swine are restless in this blast from the 1970s, and several hippies are missing. Shrewd Commissaire Laviolette arrives in the little village of Banon in Upper Provence to conduct an investigation into some passing strange goings-on. Truffles are Banon's main industry. Aside from truffle farmers and their pigs, the other leading citizens are social dropouts who've set up a commune. Farmer Alyre Morelon suspects members of the commune of harming his prize sow Roseline, who had deviated from her truffle-routing routine to sniff out unusual byways. Meanwhile, while stranded in Banon, a wealthy young woman kills her brother Jeremy with a wrench as he's changing their flat tire. Later, she watches in horror as a dark figure drags his body away. When Roseline and several of the hippies turn up missing and/or dead, the charismatic Laviolette-in his fourth outing, though his first translated into English-arrives to sort out the truth. The tale deliciously rambles among quirky members of the populace and often macabre aspects of the case, punctuated by Laviolette's droll conversations with his old friend the Marquis des Bredes, who becomes an unexpected victim. Magnan (Beyond the Grave, 2002, etc.) supplies enough plot twists and sharp shafts of wit to add up to smartly sublime entertainment.

Kirkus Reviews