Passport to Murder > France

Books indicated with the Revealweb eye icon are available in accessible formats; check with Revealweb for further details.

Blood Red Rivers - book cover

Blood Red Rivers - Jean-Christophe Grange

ISBN: 0099449021

Two detectives are working on separate cases in a town in Perigord: one a Parisian posted to the provinces following a misdemeanour of his own, the other a second generation French Arab. The mystery unravels as their two stories converge.
-Hammersmith & Fulham Libraries reader

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Have Mercy on Us All - book cover

Have Mercy on Us All - Fred Vargas

Available in accessible formats - see www.revealweb.org.uk

ISBN: 0099453649

Excellent noirish detective novel set in the 'City of Light,' Paris.
- Lewisham Libraries.

I really enjoyed this quirky translation of a French crime novel starring Detective Adamsberg. Despite a rather bizarre plot centred around an epidemic of the bubonic plague, the author manages to inject a good dose of humour into this otherwise chilling tale.
- Bromley Libraries

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Holy Smoke - book cover

Holy Smoke - Tonino Benacquista

ISBN: 190473801X

This is a witty thriller and it's easy to see why it has won three French crime fiction awards, its a pleasure from beginning to end. When Tonio agrees to write a love letter for a Parisian gigolo he sets off a chain of events that ends up with him inheriting a vineyard near Naples. As the wine it produces is undrinkable he soon realises that there is more to this vineyard business than meets the eye. Involving not only the Mafiosi but also the Vatican this is a darkly comic thriller that will leave you wanting more.
- Brent Libraries

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Ignoble profession - book cover

Ignoble profession - Louis Sanders

ISBN: 1852428406

Four English ex-pats with dubious pasts live a comfortable life of retirement in the Dordogne. But a mysterious writer publishes a fictional account of their lives and a hornets' nest of intrigue and murder is stirred.
-Enfield Libraries

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Innocence - Pierre Magnan

ISBN: 1860469809

Savour the beginning. it's worth it! Positively wallow in passages of descriptive narrative. A June dawn in Provence and Pierrot has slimy snails on his mind, not a protruding foot... from a dead body! A chance encounter yes, but one with huge consequences. Now read "The murdered house"
- Hounslow Libraries

This novel is set in a village in 1945 Provence. The story is told through the eyes of Pierrot, a 15-year-old boy who stumbles across the murdered body of a local resistance hero. Pierrot takes a letter from the body, which leads to him being involved in a tangled web of drama and mystery. The story is as much about love and lust and coming of age with the theme of murder neatly fitting in. It is an exciting and intriguing twist to have the novel told through a hormonally charged 15-year-old!
-Hillingdon Libraries

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Monsieur Malussene - book cover

Monsieur Malussene - Daniel Pennac

ISBN: 1843430207

Fast and furious, and with sub-plots that interweave within sub-plots and characters that leap off the page - Pennac's imagination knows no bounds.
-Enfield Libraries

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Perfume - book cover

Perfume - Patrick Suskind

ISBN: 140120831

A classic of the genre set in Paris where the voice is provided by the murderer.
- Hammersmith & Fulham Libraries

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Rough Trade - book cover

Rough Trade - Dominique Manotti

ISBN: 1900850877

When a young Thai woman is found raped and murdered in a Parisian fashion workshop, it sets off a grim investigation that involves illegal immigrants, drugs, politics and people in high places.
- Harrow Libraries

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Vanishing - book cover

Vanishing - Tim Krabbe

ISBN: 747565333

Short and sparse, but beware - the ending will haunt you for years.
- Enfield Libraries

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Very long engagement - book cover

Very long engagement - Sebastien Japrisot

ISBN: 0099449293

A runaway bestseller in France and the winner of the 1991 Prix Interallie, this astonishing novel is many things at once: an absorbing mystery, a study of the different ways one story can be told, and a moving and incisive portrait of life in France during and after the First World War, plus a love story of transforming power and beauty. It has been compared to War and Peace by the Los Angeles Times. A great book, and one of those you wish would never end.
- Brent Libraries

A combination of crime romance and thriller!
- Hammersmith & Fulham Libraries

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