The Messengers of Death

By Pierre Magnan

Book Overview

A Publishers Weekly Best Mystery of 2008, this is the exceptional follow-up to Pierre Magnan's highly acclaimed Death in the Truffle Wood Local handyman Emile discovers an envelope addressed to a Mlle Veronique in a disused mailbox. Being a former postman, he dutifully purchases a stamp and mails the letter. But when the body of this same Mlle Veronique is soon found murdered, Commissaire Laviolette is coaxed out of retirement to solve one of the most bizarre crimes imaginable.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0312387571
• ISBN13: 9780312387570
• Release Date: September 2009
• Publisher: St. Martins Press-3PL
• Length: 320 Pages
• Weight: 0.65 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.5" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

charming and clever

I didn't have any trouble getting into this book as the one reviewer did. I figured that any stiltedness came from translation - plus these characters are not ones who would be super talkative anyway. What I enjoyed most was the clever way the author described settings and wry social interactions. For instance, the descriptions of whether the local postmistress has read or seen the person posting the letter later known to be written by the murderer: we see the postmistress speculating about it, the detective thinking to himself she probably read it, the umbrage she takes at the idea of her offending the privacy of the post! Oolala, the little character points. The murders and the reasons behind them were set up well to make you want to know why these women are being targeted and just what "treasure" it is the murderer wants that they are hiding. The author does a nice job of using the environment and setting to increase the sense of some tragedy playing out. Yet at the same time it feels a lot like a "cozy" or "country house" mystery. We feel buffered from too much gore, and the provincial setting with all the townspeople and their little ways reminded me a bit of Agatha Christie. I plan to read the others as they are translated to English.

A Dark and Stormy Night in France . . .

If you're willing to engage in quite a bit of suspension of disbelief, you'll be rewarded by smart writing, engaging characters and a page-turner plot set in the dark yet appealing French countryside. The dialogue seems a bit awkward, sort of like anime cartoons translated from Japanese. It's understandable, but English speakers don't usually speak as disjointedly as the French characters do.