Murderous Mistral

Great read. Slick and understated!

Capitaine Roger Blanc is the ideal obsessive investigator, formerly with the Parisian anti-corruption unit. Perhaps a bit too obsessive as after a successful case against personages in high places he finds himself reallocated to Sainte-Françoise-la-Vallée, a hamlet in Provence 500 miles south of Paris.
At the same time his marriage collapses. Blanc is forced into making a fresh start. Fortunately he owns a 200 year old dilapidated house that he'd virtually forgotten he'd inherited and had for some unknown reason kept on paying the taxes.
His welcoming investigation was that of the body of a man deliberately torched. By all accounts Moréas had been a very nasty person; a belligerent bully who show more terrorized his neighbours and anyone else who crossed his path, a thief and murderer. A man no-one mourned when he met his grisly ending.
Blanc can't help but sniff out corruption, can't help wanting to find the real culprit of Moréas' murder, not just the convenient person his upright, regulation ridden Commandant wants to hang the murder on.
Blanc's partners in his new position are nicely underplayed and as the story progresses we see them develop more fully, just as Blanc does.
The translation from German to English has the story flowing without a language hitch.
This is the first in the series. I look forward to future developments in the life of Roger Blanc.

A NetGalley ARC show less

There are two things I've taken away from my reading of Murderous Mistral: that when Blanc uncovers a scorpion, his first reaction isn't to stomp on it as most people would, and that, at certain times of the year, Provence smells overwhelmingly of wild thyme. That's not much, is it?

For the most part, I did not find either the characters or the mystery to be standouts. The absolute best parts of the book were the descriptions of the countryside and of Blanc's inherited home. I perked up every time he started to do something with that old building. Compared to my almost non-existent interest in the mystery, I would've been much happier if this had been turned into a fixer-upper series on Home and Garden Television.

Of course, your mileage show more may definitely vary, and although I did have problems with the characters and the story, I found Murderous Mistral to be worth reading for the loving descriptions of Provence alone. show less

Wer die Provence kennt oder kennenlernen möchte, wird dieses Buch lieben. Ein sehr leicht zu lesender Provence Krimi mit liebevoll gezeichneten Charakteren. Sehr unterhaltsam und mit einem glaubwürdigem Plot. Der Leser darf sich auf tolles Kopfkino freuen. Die sommerliche Provence wird lebendig und man möchte eigentlich nicht, dass der Krimi zu einem Ende kommt. Ich hätte mir persönlich noch etwas mehr Tiefgang zu den einzelnen Charakteren und der Umgebung vorstellen können. Die Liebe vom Autor zur Provence ist spürbar. Gut gefallen haben mir die Gedankenspiele des Kommissar Blanc, besonders wenn er die Atmosphäre des Midi beschreibt. Das nächste Buch von Cay Rademacher ist schon gekauft und ich bin gespannt auf die weiteren show more Abenteuer des Kommissars in der Camargue. "Moerderischer Mistral" wird der Leser wohl recht schnell lesen. Aber das macht ja auch ein gutes Buch aus, oder? Menschen mit weniger Zeit können das Buch auch mal zur Seite legen und der Wiedereinstieg sollte einfach sein. Die Leser können sich hier auf einen leichten provenzalischen Sommerkrimi freuen. show less

Murderous Mistral is the first in a new series by Cay Rademacher who also writes the Inspector Frank Stave series about a German police officer in American-occupied German after World War II. This new series features Captain Roger Blanc, an intuitive and determined investigator whose stunning success at uncovering official corruption has landed him in exile in Provence just in time for the mistral – cold, dry high winds that blow down the Rhone Valley to the Mediterranean. These winds are nearly mythic and dominate the region during their season.

Blanc is assigned a murder case the day he arrives, one that is expected to be handed off to Marseilles as soon as they show up. However, the victim is a local miscreant so he gets to stay on show more the case. Assisting him, a burned out fellow officer haunted by an old case that involved the victim and a hyper-competent lesbian officer who makes Blanc’s success possible.

The story is rich in local detail, with neighbors who drop by, with the scent of thyme and the beautiful vistas of Provence. Much is made of the cultural differences of the midi, the South of France compared to Blanc’s childhood in the north and his adult life in Paris. There is a lot that reminds me of Martin Walker’s Chief Bruno series, the local characters, the reverence for food and wine, and the mystery rooted in local knowledge and politics.

Murderous Mistral is a fair mystery with an interesting main character and supporting characters. The clues are there and shared with the reader. This is a good procedural, walking us through how the police work with prosecutors throughout the investigation, a very different system than ours that adds interest to the story.

There is a cynicism about police corruption that is disturbing. Blanc is convinced that his superiors could gladly arrest an innocent man whose biography makes a good story that rocks no boats. Would that happen? Perhaps, human nature can be appalling when folks want to protect their livelihood. Still, French police are considered relatively free of corruption relative to most other countries. There was a scandal in Marseilles (the closest big city in this book) in 2012 with officers seizing drugs and then letting drug dealers go while retaining the drugs for their personal enrichment, but that is not the kind of corruption here.

Perhaps, human nature can be appalling when folks want to protect their livelihood. Still, French police are considered relatively free of corruption relative to most other countries. There was a scandal in Marseilles (the closest big city in this book) in 2012 with officers seizing drugs and then letting drug dealers go while retaining the drugs for their personal enrichment, but that is not the kind of corruption here.

I am looking forward to the next in the series. Blanc is an interesting, smart detective, starting a new life, divorced after twenty years of marriage, exiled from his city, so there is plenty of interest in addition to the mystery.

Murderous Mistral will be released on September 19th. I received an advance e-galley from NetGalley

★★★
https://tonstantweaderreviews.wordpress.com/2017/09/15/9781250110718 ( show less

I enjoyed the author's new detective, Roger Blanc, for the most part and his descriptions of the region in France where Roger lives.

However, sometimes I felt the writing was overthought and overwritten. The sex scene with Roger and his superior? Why? Definitely just page filler for me and not needed at all. I don't even think it went with the character. A man who wondered if he had kissed or not kissed someone right.

A decent read albeit with a lot of unnecessary writing in which I enjoyed learning more French curse words.

Thanks to St. Martin's Press and Net Galley for providing me with a free e-galley in exchange for an honest, unbiased review.

This is the first volume in the Roger Blanc series. I have already read the fourth volume and have now decided to read this series from the beginning.
On the one hand, you get to know all the important people who belong to this series. On the other hand, it shows why Capitaine Blanc was transferred to Provence and how he learns to gain a foothold and make friends.
A troublemaker is found burned on the garbage dump. Blanc and his team will soon find out that various regional personalities have something to hide. But who among them is actually the bad guy? More murders have to be solved before they find him.
It was a cozy mystery and I will read the other books in this series as well.

Interesting procedural; a Paris detective finds himself reassigned to a rural town in Provence after busting a corrupt minister... Under scrutiny (and with the help) of his former boss's wife, who is le juge d'instruction (examining magistrate) he is able to conduct the inquiry of the murder of a local thug and bring it to close.

A very interesting & compelling read.