Crime Fiction from France

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Georges Simenon (2005) Tropic Moon.

In the former French colony of Gabon, Joseph Timar has taken on a job with a timber company. He stays at a small hotel in Libreville, where he gets obsessed with the hotelier's wife, Adèle. In the sweltering heat of the tropical sun, Joseph is dragged into the moral decay of crude lust, drinking and brutality of the French expatriates.

Georges Simenon (2003) Dirty Snow. (First published in 1950)

Set in occupied France during WWII, Simenon's bleak masterpiece is a dispassionate description of human cruelty. No other writer has achieved the psychological intensity of Simenon. “What many regard as the finest of all noir novels…"--Tim Rutten, The Los Angeles Times

Jean-Jacques Fiechter (1998) A Masterpiece of Revenge.

If you like the high art scene this thriller is for you. In Fiechter's masterpiece of revenge, Charles Vermeille, a world-renowned art appraiser is receiving photographs of his beloved only son. The subtle threats of the anonymous sender quickly turn the elegant world of this civilized man into a diabolic nightmare. The fast-paced, wicked plot has more twists and turns than a Swiss mountain road.

Georges Simenon (2006) The Strangers in the House.

Hector Loursat has been a hermit in his own house ever since his wife abandoned him years ago. Only when a gunshot raises him from his alcohol-induced stupor he takes notice of his teenage daughter and her dangerous friends living in his house. Simenon's dispassionate masterpiece is a philosophically profound examination of emotional decay and resurrection.

Marquise de Sade (1996) Crimes of Love.

Defiant, provocative and unconventional. De Sade's best collection of erotic crime.

Michael Bond (2006) Monsieur Pamplemousse and the Militant Housewives.

What can you expect from a story that starts with an exploding coffin at a funeral ceremony, where the main heroes are Paris Surete Inspector Monsieur Pamplemousse and his bloodhound Pommes Frittes, and a CIA agent pretending to be a cuisine chef and experimenting with a dog translator? Hilarious entertainment - especially for young adults.

Robert Irwin (1997) The Mysteries of Algiers.

Disturbing psychological study of a fanatical Marxist in French Algiers during the war of independence from France in the late 1950s and early 1960s. This portrait of a true Marxist believer is highly unsettling.

Edgar Allan Poe (2006) The Murders in the Rue Morgue: The Dupin Tales.

Collection of classical detective novels by Edgar Allan Poe. Scheduled for publication: May 23, 2006

Fred Vargas (2006) The Three Evangelists.

In Fred Vargas' novel you won't find tough detectives or blood-dripping crime scenes. The Three Evangelists, and amateur sleuths, are: Marc, known as Saint-Mark (cleaning lady by day, medievalist by night); Lucien, known as Saint-Luke (historian specializing in the Great War), and Matthias, known as Saint-Matthew (historian specializing in prehistory). Hilariously thrilling.

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