I received this book as one of my CBR Exchange gifts from The Chancellor (thank you!!) and was delighted to receive it. It has become a nice tradition as I received the first in the series as part of my exchange gift last year. Whereas it took me about a year to open the first one, this was not the case the second time around, and it was my first book of the new year because I knew what I was in for: compelling and excellent writing with a solid mystery and no “storybook” ending, and this installment did not deliver.
This isn’t a sequel in the typical sense: their is character continuity, but the protagonist from the first novel is only mentioned in this one, and instead the other main character is the focus of this tale. When a women who bears a striking resemblance to a detective turns up dead, the investigation into the murder is able to take a turn into a bizarro undercover operation which puts the investigation, and the detective in danger.
This novel didn’t have quite the same hold on me as the first, as I knew better what to expect from French, but it was still a well-told mystery that keeps the reader wondering what will happen next. If you, hypothetically used to watch a LOT of Law and Order, but now you are trying to be better than that, but you really aren’t, then this novel is for you. Hypothetically. I look forward to seeing where the next installment takes me.