Detective Lauriant Investigates [Illustrated] [Hardcover]

Graham R. Wood (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1, 2002

Set in the pastoral ambiance of 1960s France, Detective Lauriant Investigates contains two hardboiled novellas.

"Death in a Ditch" delivers Lauriant to Saint Sauveur where he begins the nasty task of piecing together the grisly death of an antiques dealer whose body has been found in a ditch.

"Murder in the Vendee" finds Lauriant disgraced and banished to a small, sleepy province, where he must solve the mystery of a count's murder. The obvious murderer is the count's son. However, Lauriant senses a deeper, political cause hidden beneath the tranquil surface of this village.

"Soothing, stylish prose, low-key but persistent action, and deft character descriptions are nicely blended."-Library Journal

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The WorldKrime series from Intrigue gets another installment with Detective Lauriant Investigates, a volume comprised of two short novels featuring the titular hard-drinking, hard-working gruff guy with a heart of gold investigating crime in 1960s France. In Death in a Ditch, Graham R. Wood's hero searches for the killer of a strange antiques dealer; in Murder in the Vendee, he must determine if a Count's son was also his killer.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

This mystery by first-time British author Wood is actually two adventures in one. In "Death in a Ditch," Detective Lauriant is called in to investigate a small-town murder in 1960s France. The victim, a French-speaking German with an Argentine passport, leaves behind an upscale but mostly unvisited antique shop, a therefore mysteriously amassed fortune, and a surprise legatee. The small host of intriguing characters includes the town's resident busybody, a sickly notary, a possibly dodgy mayor, and others. The second tale, "Murder in the Vend e," revolves around the mystery of a count's murder. Soothing, stylish prose, low-key but persistent action, and deft character descriptions are nicely blended. For readers who like their mysteries with a Gallic touch.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 370 pages
• Publisher: Intrigue Press; illustrated edition edition (March 1, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1890768448
• ISBN-13: 978-1890768447
• Product Dimensions: 7.4 x 5.6 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,128,008 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Hum-Drum Village Cozy, January 16, 2003

By 

A. Ross (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Detective Lauriant Investigates (Hardcover)

This book is actually two smaller books in one. I must confess, I only read the first story ("A Death In A Ditch") and didn't enjoy it enough to proceed to the second tale ("The Murder in the Vendeé). Set in the early 1960s, the stories feature a title character, who is a gruff divorced Parisian police inspector. In "A Death In A Ditch", he is summoned by a colleague in the southwest to the fictional village of Saint Sauveur (no relation to the real village of similar name 30k north of Nice). Hoping to escape the dreary Parisian weather and spend a few days in the sun, he instead encounters never-ending rain and the murder of a German antique dealer. The mystery is essentially one of the small village cozy genre (think Agatha Christie), with a cast of about ten main suspects and witnesses. Lauriant is the outsider who must sift through the various intrigues, relationships, and town geography in order to discover the motive and means for the killing. The way he probes the locals and ultimately summons everyone to the hotel to unmask the killer is classic Hercule Poirot. It's not bad, just not that juicy or original either. And at the end, I was left wondering why the victim would have ever settled in the tiny village in the first place. The author also tries to weave in some sense of how French society was changing in the '60s, but it never really gets off the ground.