Death in bordeaux by Allan Massie

Allan Massie is a Scottish writer with a number of novels ,he is also a journalist and commentator in various papers and media ,the subject matter of Vichy France he has previously touched on ,in his other novels .This novel is set in spring of 1940 and involves a detective Lannes a policeman trying to keep control in a changing face of france ,he then has a body to deal with a young man ,but this young man is a homosexual and under the current climate Lannes worries how far he can take the case .

Never seen anything like it ,superintendent .Jules here puked ,and I don’t blame him .Naturally when I sat I haven’t seen the like ,I make an exception of what I saw in the trenches .but then even there ,well war’s natural ,as you might say , you expect horrors and this here it’s downright unnatural .

the horror of the crime scene shocks even Lannes .

The crime is a truly horrific one ,the trail leads to people in power and Lannes into danger ,there is a mysterious figure behind the crimes a man who smokes english cigarettes ,he has to question his morals to pursue the case to the end .The book is published by Quartet and is the first of a trilogy .When I first read about this book I imagined a foyles war moved to france in some respects it is a bit like that but with more depths ,Lannes is a troubled man with problems at home and at work struggling with the changing boundaries the war has brought to his job .Massie has paint the war ravage bordeaux and area well .Lannes is a wonderful character a honest man in a dishonest and turbulent time ,I will eagerly awake the next one in this trilogy to find out how he is coping with the war .If you like crime novels you’ll love this ,if you like war novels you’ll love this too and also if you like books with moral and ethical questions this should appeal to you .