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You are here: Home > Fiction > Crime, Mystery & Thriller > Death on the Rive Nord

Author: Adrian Magson

Genre: Crime, Mystery & Thriller
Format: Paperback
ISBN: 9780749040635
Pages: 0
Rights: World
Pub. Date: 30th April 2012

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Price: £7.99

Format: Paperback

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Picardie, France.1963. A truck drops a group of illegal workers by a deserted stretch of canal in the dead of night near Poissons-les-Marais, desperate travellers in a pipeline, searching for a better life. Days later, one of them surfaces, stabbed to death.

For Inspector Lucas Rocco, finding the victim's fellow travellers presents problems. Most Algerian immigrants are welcome, but trawling for any who aren’t is a sensitive issue loaded with threats of civil unrest – something which terrifies his bosses in the Ministry. And when Rocco is ordered to stay away from one factory where he suspects illegals are employed, it goes against everything he knows.

However, his difficulties have barely begun. One of the illegals is a young woman with a small child, on the run from her brutal husband, Samir Farek, an Algerian gangster who has threatened to kill them both.

But Farek has another, bigger agenda: to take over as gang lord in Paris. With a history of disposing of anyone who crosses him – a fate he is happy to mete out even to a senior policeman who gets in his way – the potential consequences are frightening.

Caught between his instinct to protect a vulnerable woman and her child, of obeying bosses interested only in preserving the status quo, and facing the threat of a dangerous gangster who recognises no boundaries in the murderous pursuit of his plans, Rocco begins to wonder how long he can survive . . .

'This second outing in Lucas Rocco's company is every bit as enjoyable as the first. The setting is as well-depicted as ever, as are the people who surround Rocco...A complex and thoroughly entertaining book that kept me interested and engaged through numerous twists and turns...As a main character, Rocco is every bit as strong as Martin Walker's Bruno Courrèges and will, I'm sure, hold a strong appeal to fans of that series as well as anyone who likes their crime stories to come with an authentic sense of place. It's nice to see a book where the setting blends so well with a genuinely good story. I'm extremely glad this has become a series and will certainly be back for the next when it appears.'Reviewingtheevidence.com

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Don't usually read a book with such energy more akin to my long forgotton teenage years but here is a real page turner for even 50 somethings like me. The second book in this excellent series of detective work in rural France in the 1960s. No attempt to dwell in a less troubled era; real crime here more Maigret than Heartbeat certainly but closer still in the story telling and mood created. Illegal workers, gangsters, corruption and people smuggling gives it its contemporary feel. Not just a police procedural novel but a genuine crime thriller with characters slowly emerging enhancing its richness not overwhelming the narrative that rumbles on a pace. Love the french setting and context of the stories and as at the end of any good book feel a sense of loss and eagerness for the development of this wonderful new detective.Richard Latham, Burton on Trent

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