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172 pages

English

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A go-to destination for students of the finer things in life, the Villa des Pinales is set high in the foothills above Nice. As groups check-in for three-day courses on wine tasting, perfume making and landscape painting, they are joined by their tutors, one of whom proves to be forensic sketch artist Astrid Pireque. Down in the city, the remaining members of Darac's team are experiencing a lull in new cases they know won't last. But none is prepared for what lay ahead. The Essence of Murder, the latest thriller in the Captain Darac series sees Peter Morfoot's writing skills at their very best.

Informations

Publié par	Galileo Publishing
Date de parution	12 mai 2022
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781912916924
Langue	English

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0200€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

Extrait

PRAISE FOR THE CAPTAIN DARAC MYSTERIES
IMPURE BLOOD : U.S. Library Association’s Pick of the Month
“ Engrossing... An auspicious début ” – Publishers Weekly
“ Great plot, appealing hero, glorious setting plus taut writing – a real winner ” – Martin Walker, bestselling author of the Bruno Courrèges novels
“ Impressive... will delight fans of international crime ” – Booklist
“ A vibrant, satisfying read ” – The Crime Review
FATAL MUSIC : One of Strand Magazine’s Top 25 Books of 2017
“ A thoroughly satisfying novel... Morfoot brilliantly captures the sights, smells and attitudes of southern France as well as giving us an engaging hero ”– Mike Ripley, Shots eZine 5 Picks of 2017
“ Pulls you along like an iron bar to a magnet. Crime and mystery readers will consume every last morsel of this book. ” – David Cranmer, Criminal Element Magazine
“ Deftly interwoven plot lines… vividly captured Riviera setting… This strikingly well-written crime novel should appeal strongly to many. ” – Bruce Crowther, Jazz Journal
BOX OF BONES :
“ An accomplished piece of crime fiction. Captain Paul Darac... has become, without doubt, my favourite foreign detective created by a Brit since the late Michael Dibdin gave us Aurelio Zen. ” – Mike Ripley – Shots eZine, 5 Picks of 2018
“ The plot, filled with enough twists and turns for a corkscrew, is intriguing while never losing touch with either reality or humanity .” – Crime Review
“ Darac leads an engaging and distinctive team of officers, all of whom grow as the reader learns more about them. Not only are the good guys well drawn, but so too are the bad guys and the plot is intriguing and filled with many twists and turns .” – Bruce Crowther, Jazz Journal
KNOCK ’EM DEAD:
“Pin sharp...A winner from page one” – Dagger-winning author Jim Kelly
Peter Morfoot’s policiers featuring jazz-loving Captain Paul Darac of Nice’s Brigade Criminelle comprise one of the best crime series I have discovered in the last ten years. The fourth instalment, Knock ’Em Dead, is published by Galileo, and delivers on all fronts. – Mike Ripley: Shots Magazine.

Captain Darac Mysteries
Impure Blood
Fatal Music
Box of Bones
Knock ’Em Dead
Essence of Murder

Galileo Publishers
16 Woodlands Road
Great Shelford Cambridge
CB22 5LW UK
www.galileopublishing.co.uk
Distributed in the USA by:
SCB Distributors
15608 S. New Century Drive
Gardena, CA 90248-2129
ISBN 978-1-912916-51-1
Completed 2021
First published in the UK 2022
© 2022 Peter Morfoot
The moral rights of the author have been asserted.
All rights reserved.
This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out or otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.
Printed in the UK
Names, places and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead (except for satirical purposes), is entirely coincidental.

For David and Andy Scott

DARAC MYSTERY SERIES BY PETER MORFOOT AUTHOR’S NOTE
When I began devising what became the Captain Darac Mystery series, I knew what I didn’t want for my central character. To be authentic, any character needs flaws but I determined Darac would not be a slave to his. I determined he would not always make the right moves in an investigation; nor would he solve cases over a chat in a bar.
I conceived him as a strong-minded individual but, attesting to the essentially collaborative nature of police work, I needed him to be a whole-hearted team player, also; an interesting dynamic and one that gave me the pleasurable task of creating a permanent cast of supporting players for him. This led to Darac’s genesis as a “ poète policier ,” a term derived from a resonant assertion by award-winning writer and, to Anglicise his rank, chief superintendent of police, Philippe Pichon: “A poet can be a policeman and a policeman can be a poet.” But which art form for Darac? I felt that jazz with its tension between structure and improvisation would give me the most relevant and interesting possibilities.
The setting for the series? With its vibrant light, the spectacular Alpe Maritime mountains at its back and that celebrated azure coastline at its feet, Nice is as beautiful as any Mediterranean resort. But it’s also a multi-ethnic city of almost half a million souls. And are there serpents in this particular paradise? Ask Darac, Commissaire Agnès Dantier and the other officers of Nice’s Brigade Criminelle.
A senior police officer who also plays jazz in a high-quality group , a significant player therefore in two different sorts of team, was someone I was looking forward to getting to putting through his paces on the page. Unlike some of his fictional counterparts, Darac is a character drawn to living not so much on the edge as on the borderline; a man who chooses to position himself at points of junction or collision with the world. And in the five novels of the Darac Mystery series thus far, he has encountered plenty of both.
February, 2022

Contents
LIST OF CHARACTERS
WEDNESDAY 14 th SEPTEMBER
THURSDAY 15 th SEPTEMBER
FRIDAY, 16 th SEPTEMBER
SATURDAY, 17 th SEPTEMBER
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

LIST OF CHARACTERS
The Brigade Criminelle of Nice
Agnès Dantier: Commissaire
Paul Darac: Captain
Roland Granot: Lieutenant
Alejo ‘Bonbon’ Busquet: Lieutenant
Yvonne Flaco: Officer
Max Perand: Officer
Francine ‘Frankie’ Lejeune: Captain, Vice Squad.
Jean-Pierre ‘Armani’ Tardelli: Captain, Narcotics Squad
Forensics
Raul ‘R.O.’ Ormans: Senior Forensic Analyst
Erica Lamarthe: Principal Technician

Pathology
Deanna Bianchi: Chief Pathologist
Carl Barrau: Deputy Chief Pathologist
Djibril ‘Map’ Mpensa: Pathologist
Lami Toto: Technician
Patricia Lebrun: Technician

Other Officers
Astrid Pireque: Sketch Artist
Jean-Jacques ‘Lartou’ Lartigue: Crime Scene Co-ordinator
Serge Paulin: Beat Officer
Alain Charvet: Duty Officer
Wanda Korneliuk: Patrol Car Driver

Judiciary
Jules Frènes: Public Prosecutor
Albert Reboux: Examining Magistrate
At The Blue Devil Jazz Club
Eldridge ‘Ridge’ Clay: club owner
Pascal Malata: doorman
Khara Oliveira: waitress
Roger Oliveira: chef

The Didier Musso Quintet*
Didier Musso: piano and bandleader
Maxine Walda: drums
Luc Gabron: bass
Paul Darac: guitar
Dave Blackstock: tenor sax
Trudi ‘Charlie’ Pachelberg: alto sax
Jacques Quille: trumpet
* It is something of a running gag at the club that Didier Musso’s group of high-quality local musicians is always billed as the Didier Musso Quintet irrespective of the number of players on board at any particular time.

STAFF AND STUDENTS AT VILLA DES PINALES
Elie Tiron: Administrative Director
Barbara Artaud: Chief Receptionist
Bruno Gamblé: Night Desk
Jean-Claude Costeaux: Head Chef
Barthélémy Issako: Head Gardener
Lionel Fournier: General Factotum

Courses September 14th – 16th
Depicting The Landscape
Tutor: Astrid Pireque
Students: Ralf Bassette, paper manufacturer
Alan Davies: retired English teacher
Claudine Bonnet: retired HR manager
Babette Bonnet: training officer
et al

Wine Tasting For Connoisseurs
Tutor: Mathieu Croix:
Students: Gérard Urquelle, jewellery firm rep
Laurent Salins: call centre manager
Thea Petrova: luxury goods sales manager
Marcia Calon: retired p.a.
Jérôme Calon: accountant
et al

The Magic of Scent
Tutor: Zoë Hamada
Students: Lydia Félix: critical care nurse
Monique Dufour: boutique owner:
Cinzia Veri: elderly aristocrat
et al

STAFF AT PALAIS MASSÉNA DEPARTMENT STORE
Albert Cassani: Store Manager
Nadine Beaumont: Senior Sales Assistant
Zena Bairault: Trainee Sales Assistant
André Ricolfi: Security Guard
Jade Moreau: Spa Assistant
Madame Triot: Shoe Department Assistant

WEDNESDAY 14 th SEPTEMBER

4.25 PM
The stone steps curving up to the rear entrance of the Villa des Pinales may have been faux -Baroque, but for a slender young woman lugging a pull case, a rucksack and a trio of bulging shoulder bags, mounting them was going to pose an entirely authentic challenge. Balancing awkwardly, Astrid Pireque bent to pick up her case, performed a couple of vigorous shoulder hitches and launched herself onward and upward. The bags unhitched themselves immediately, a move that an increasingly thrust-out elbow did little to correct and, by the time she reached the balustraded parvis at the top, all three were hanging from her wrist. All the more determined not to be beaten, she tottered through the entrance doors and, adopting an increasingly compensating lean, made it all the way into Reception before releasing the load. Ta-dah! As if having the last laugh, one of her bags slumped open, disgorging an assortment of paint tubes on to the floor.
‘Shit!’ she announced, drawing the attention of a distinguished-looking man checking in at the desk.
‘May I help, mademoiselle?’
Distinguished and gracious. And seemingly not put off by her impromptu impression of a stork with the staggers. ‘No, no.’ Astrid rounded up the escapees. With any luck, she reflected, Distinguished would turn out be one of her students, the type who, increasingly dazzled by her talent as the course progressed, might commission a work from her at its conclusion. And, judging by the quality of his own luggage, pay handsomely for the privilege.
She straightened, looking past him at an easel-mounted board which showed that alongside her own