Books
Dead Good Journeys: France
The second stop on our Dead Good Grand European Tour is France! A land renowned for it’s great cheese, fantastic wine and breath-taking countryside. Whether you’re sunning yourself in a cafe in Paris, being seen in Monaco or sipping a fine vintage in Bordeaux what better way to immerse yourself in the landscape and culture than by reading a crime novel set there!
Here are our Gallic suggestions:
Visit Rural France with Simon Beckett.
1. Stone Bruises by Simon Beckett
Stone Bruises is a classic nail-shredder of a thriller that holds you from the beginning. Set during a sweltering summer in rural France, the remote beautiful landscape, a rundown local farm with its ramshackle barn, blighted vineyard and the brooding lake play as important a part in Sean’s fate as his past actions.
Visit Old Paris with Edgar Allen Poe.
2. The Murders in the Rue Morgue by Edgar Allan Poe
Taking it back to the classics, Edgar Allan Poe and The Murders in the Rue Morgue. This short story collection gives a real flavour of Paris gone by, the bustle of the metropolis, the claustrophic feeling of walls and streets closing in. One to dip into whilst sipping your coffee in a quiet cafe!
Visit Paris with Pierre Lemaitre.
3. Alex by Pierre Lemaitre
Staying in Paris we have the joint winner of the CWA International Dagger 2013 – Alex by Pierre Lemaitre. This is a tightly plotted, gripping tale of kidnap and horror and well justifies the new wave of French crime fiction rivalling their Scandi-counterparts.
4. Bed of Nails by Antonin Varenne
Bed of Nails does for Paris what James Ellroy did for vintage America, shining a light as never before on the seedy underbelly of La Ville-Luminère. You won’t be able to put this down unless it’s to follow Guérin tracks through the darker side of Paris that the tourists don’t get to see!
5. Dog Will Have his Day by Fred Vargas
Keeping watch under the windows of the Paris flat belonging to a politician’s nephew, ex-special investigator Louis Kehlweiler catches sight of something odd on the pavement. A tiny piece of bone. Human bone, in fact. But how do you solve a murder without a body?
Who’ve we missed out? Let us know in the comments below.
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Maigret my husband made us go to Bd. Richard Lenoir to find where he was supposed to live And also Michael Bond great french inspector