Jacquot and the Angel [Hardcover]

Martin O'Brien (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 26, 2005

In the Second World War, four Resistance fighters are executed by the Gestapo in France's Occupied Southern Zone. More than fifty years later, a wealthy German family, resident in Provence, is brutally murdered. When a local gardener is arrested and charged, Daniel Jacquot of the Cavaillon Regional Crime Squad is convinced they have the wrong man. Four hundred miles away, in Alsace, Marie-Ange Buhl knows it for certain. Marie-Ange is a psychic and has 'helped' the police before. She comes to Provence and begins to investigate with Jacquot, and together they uncover a secret that goes back more than half a century, a story of love and betrayal, hatred and blackmail in which his own family had a tragic part to play.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Martin O'Brien was educated at the Oratory School and Hertford College Oxford. He started his career as a copy-sub, going on to become Travel Editor of Vogue. He left Vogue to write ALL THE GIRLS. After 20 years of living in London, Martin, his wife and two daughters moved to the countryside, where he started to write the Jacquot books...

Product Details

• Hardcover: 416 pages
• Publisher: Headline Book Publishing (September 26, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0755322894
• ISBN-13: 978-0755322893
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,095,579 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Martin O'Brien was born in Torbay, South Devon, in 1951. The son of a teacher and naval officer he was educated at the Oratory School in Berkshire and at Hertford College, Oxford. He was travel editor at British Vogue in the 1970s and has written lifestyle and travel features for a wide range of international publications. He lives in the Cotswolds with his wife and two daughters, and writes his Jacquot novels in a garden shed.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent!!!, July 3, 2006

By 

L. J. Roberts (Oakland, CA, USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Jacquot & the Angel (Hardcover)

Chief Inspector Daniel Jacquot has a multiple murder on his hands. The four, five if you count an unborn child, members of the German Martner family living in Provence have been killed. Jacquot is to be assisted by a member of Munich Criminal Investigations as memories of WWII are long in France. But clues lead to the family's gardener, confessed to be the baby's father. Although the gardener is arrested, Jacquot doesn't believe he is guilty. Neither does an attractive young woman who has come to take care of Martner's valuable orchids and floral shop. More than a florist, Marie-Ange is a psychic who knows the gardener is innocent.

I loved this book. It is wonderfully written with interesting characters so well described they all become critical to the story. O'Brien takes several story threads and masterfully weaves them together with elements of pathos into a tapestry of clues, intrigue and the impact of the past on the present. His descriptions of Jacquot's French country town made me want to pack my bag but are also a reminder that small towns around the world are virtually the same. O'Brien does a wonderful job connecting the present to the past. He has a masterfully subtle touch, particularly with the inclusion of the psychic. I anxiously await Jacquot's next case.