The Messengers of Death (Commissaire Laviolette Series #2) »

Pierre Magnan is an award-winning French crime writer who publishes his novels to rave international reviews. The Messengers of Death is his second mystery in the Commissaire Laviolette series; his classic crime novel, The Murdered House, is forthcoming from Minotaur Books.

A Publishers Weekly Best Mystery of 2008, this is the exceptional follow-up to Pierre Magnan’s highly acclaimed Death in the Truffle Wood

Local handyman Emile discovers an envelope addressed to a Mlle Veronique in a disused mailbox. Being a former postman, he dutifully purchases a stamp and mails the letter. But when the body of this same Mlle Veronique is soon found murdered, Commissaire Laviolette is coaxed out of retirement to solve one of the most bizarre crimes imaginable.

Publishers Weekly

A crime offering delicate soupçons of passionate desires and outrageous sex lures former Superintendent Laviolette out of retirement in Magnan's stylish second Provence mystery (after 2007's Death in the Truffle Wood). When avaricious spinster Véronique Champourcieux is found with 30 centimeters of rusty 1871 bayonet in her belly, Laviolette's old acquaintance Judge Chabrand enlists his help in the murder investigation. As one grisly killing after another ensues, the pair delve into long-repressed secrets of the poor, harsh Provençal countryside. Magnan blends elegant clue laying and deft characterizations that strike to the core of human frailties, all within a detective tale with a theme as old as Cain and Abel, as new as tomorrow's headlines and as eternal as the Greek myths that inspire Magnan's fiction. (Oct.)

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