Pel and the Sepulchre Job - Hardcover

Hebden, Mark

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0312098936 ISBN 13: 9780312098933

Publisher: St Martins Pr, 1993

Synopsis

To Chief Inspector Evariste Clovis Desire Pel, autumn in Burgundy is an unsettling time full of signs and portents. The sign is the discovery of a "floater" - a dead man in the canal. The portent is the arrival of a probationary police officer called Anne-Marie. A strange, possibly symbolic drawing is found in the saturated wallet of the "floater," a small-time crook who was dead from bullet wounds before he hit the water. From such small beginnings comes an explosion of criminal activity that challenges the gloomy chief inspector more than ever before.
The major crimes happen at almost the same moment: a hostage drama at the Banque Credit Rural, where not only millions in francs and jewelry are at stake, but lives as well. And on the other side of the sleepy French town, a beautiful young art student casually switches masterpieces for copies.

About this title

About the Author

John Harris, who also wrote under the pen names of 'Mark Hebden' and 'Max Hennessy', was born in 1916. He authored the best-selling and later filmed 'The Sea Shall Not Have Them', a story of survival and rescue from World War II which continues to be periodically screened on TV. He was a sailor, an airman, a journalist, a travel courier, a cartoonist and a history teacher. During the War Harris managed to serve with two air forces and two navies. After turning to full-time writing, he wrote adventure stories, war novels, political thrillers, and also created a sequence of crime novels around the quirky French Chief Inspector Pel, centred primarily in Burgundy, but occasionally Paris and elsewhere. Harris was unusually versatile and wide ranging as an author. Epics such as 'China Seas', which deals with human tragedy, war and revolution in an authentic historical setting, and the three trilogies written under the pseudonym Max Hennessy - one of which, the Kelly Maguire series commencing with 'Lion at Sea' is reckoned to be amongst the finest modern war-at-sea stories written - along with African adventure novels, wide-ranging crime, mysteries and historical fiction, all guarantee a whole library of diverse and entertaining reading full of dry wit and gripping prose.

From Publishers Weekly

Sadly, this is likely to be the final outing for crafty Burgundian curmudgeon, police inspector Evariste Pel, since Hebden ( Pel and the Promised Land ; Pel Under Pressure ) died in 1991. Here the acerbic, dogged chief inspector, who is passionately chauvinistic in regard to his beloved Burgundy, moves from a quiet summer into a fall season marked by a proliferation of crime. First, the body of a man killed by gunshot is pulled from the Canal de Bourgogne and a drawing with the date 3 December is found in his pocket. On that date a few days later, a bank robbery turns into a hostage situation and the lines of the drawing correspond to the escape route taken by robbers. Meanwhile, across town, a beautiful art student finishes copying two famous paintings in a quiet gallery. She leaves, smiling sweetly, with her paintings--or what look like her paintings--under her arm. Suddenly Pel is busy, trying to break in a new female member of his team and coming to terms with rampant crime when he should, by rights, be taking it easy. Like the fruits of a local vineyard, Pel's form of breezy, witty and laconic crime-solving offers multifaceted pleasures. He and his creator will be much missed.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: St Martins Pr
• Publication date: 1993
• ISBN 10: 0312098936
• ISBN 13: 9780312098933
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1