Wasp-waisted [Paperback]

David Barrie is a highly competent story teller who evokes the atmosphere and streets of Paris. His prose is sharp, his plotting tight and he uses the backdrop of France's capital city to excellent effect. --Reviewing the Evidence

A tightly plotted police procedural which makes good use of its Parisian setting and great cast of characters. A real page-turner. Definitely recommended. --The Bookbag

An original, thoughtful and tightly-plotted novel by David Barrie. Set in Paris, Wasp-Waisted recounts a murder enquiry born of a fatal encounter between fashion, art, business and desire.

Laure Sarraute, a young model soon to be the face of a distinguished fashion house, features on the cover of Exposé, the country's top scandal-sheet, posed seductively in some of the most expensive lingerie money can buy. Room service in a luxurious Left Bank hotel stumbles upon the original: her corpse, exactly as captured in the photo, sent to Exposé by the murderer.

The case is assigned to Franck Guerin, a national security specialist seconded to homicide duty under the eye of a maverick magistrate, Yves de Chaumont. Used to a harder, darker world, Franck finds himself following the victim's exquisite underwear to its manufacturer and to Wasp-Waisted, a subscriber-only magazine dedicated to images of young women in erotic lingerie whose visual universe seems to echo that of the Exposé photo.

Other victims follow. Under the discreet and cool-headed direction of Yves de Chaumont, Franck attempts to reconstruct the ties that bound victims and suspects in a universe of desire, deceit, beauty and profit. What he does not know is that someone is following him, photographing his every move, preparing to add him to a collection of images.

The investigation takes Franck all across Paris: from the luxury hotels of the Left and Right Banks to seedy lodgings on the city's outer fringe; from the clustered skyscrapers of La Défense to the bohemian disorder of the Ecole des Beaux Arts; from the designer boutiques of the Avenue Montaigne to the strip clubs of Pigalle. As each location reveals how it is linked to the others, it becomes clear that every great city breeds the crimes it deserves.

A young model is found dead in a luxury hotel in Paris. A stunning photo of the scene features on the cover of the country's top-selling scandal sheet. It was delivered before the police found the body. In a city obsessed with images of perfection, the murderer's artistic talents are the object of much admiration.

It's Franck Guerin's first criminal case. Used to the murky world of national security, he has to learn to play by the rules. Not so easy when your only clue is the ultra-chic lingerie in which the victim was draped.

The fashion trail takes him into a universe of desire, deceit, beauty and profit. As the victims mount and the images roll in, Franck has to train his eye to spot the killer's signature.

David Barrie is a Scot who has lived in contented exile Paris since 1992. Having dragged out studenthood for as long as he could (commencing and abandoning two PhDs on the way), he eventually stumbled into management consulting. Thus began a twenty-year career in the UK and France that allowed him to become a partner in a mildly prestigious international audit and consulting group. He ended up founding his own consulting firm (neither prestigious nor international) in Paris and trying his hand at writing. Wasp-Waisted is his first published novel.