Death on the Marais [Hardcover]

"This book is so much fun...Magson is an experienced writer in this genre, which shows in the sheer, slick enjoyability of the read. From the opening, I was happy to place myself in his hands and allow him to manipulate my imagination." --Historical Novels Review - historicalnovelsociety.org/the-review.htm

"Rocco is a likeable character... a law unto himself. The reader is kept hanging till the very last moment... the ending is excellent. If you enjoy all things French, this book will appeal." --The Book Bag - bookbag.co.uk

"Briliant - you just cannot put it down. The gloomy, sombre, atmospheric landscape of Picardie is brilliantly evoked... I eagerly await the next offering." --Monsters & Critics monstersandcritics.com/books/reviews/article_1588304.php/Death-on-the-Marais

"The climax, when it comes, is explosive... and Magson skillfully draws the various threads of his story together in a very satisfactory manner." --Reviewing the Evidence - reviewingtheevidence.com

"There is a real sense of action and melodramatic page-turning suspense until almost the last sentence. Fast moving and great entertainment."
--Eurocrime - eurocrime.co.uk/reviews

She was going to die. She could feel it, her life ebbing away as surely as fine sand through fingers. The thought caused her more sadness than fear; less a sense of foreboding than a cause to wonder what lay ahead. France, 1963. It's a time of great change in France, not least for Inspector Lucas Rocco. Taken out of his home base of Clichy, Paris, as part of a nationwide 'initiative' to broaden police operations, he finds himself in the village of Poissons-Les-Marais, Picardie - and answerable to his former army CO now police Commissaire Francois Massin, last seen by Rocco cowering in a foxhole in Indochina. His new patch might be rural, but it's certainly not uneventful. To begin with, he finds that hitting unexploded wartime ordnance with a hammer to harvest the metal for resale is something of a cottage industry. And when, on his first day, he finds a murdered woman wearing a Gestapo uniform lying in a British military cemetery, he knows life will be far from boring. When the body is removed by order of a magistrate from the police mortuary before Rocco can finish his investigation, he traces the paperwork to the dead woman's father, war hero and big-time industrialist Philippe Bayer-Berbier. Yet Berbier denies that his daughter is dead. Following an attempt on one villager's life and the disappearance of another, Rocco uncovers a series of connections with Berbier and his activities in the SOE and the wartime Resistance. In spite of an official wall of bureaucracy and a strained relationship with Massin, he sets out to uncover what has led to the woman's death - and why Berbier will go to any lengths - even murder - to stop his investigation.

ADRIAN MAGSON began writing short fiction and features for women's magazines, contributing over the years to publications in the UK, US, Scandinavia, Japan and Australia. As well as writing comedy material and stories for BBC radio, he also turned to writing crime thrillers, and was shortlisted for the Crime Writers' Association Debut Dagger Award. Since then he has gone on to have several crime thrillers published and is a regular contributor to Writing Magazine. www.adrianmagson.com