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THE FLEUR DE SEL MURDERS
by Jena-Luc Bannalec and Sorcha McDonagh, trans.
Minotaur, April 2018
320 pages
$24.99
ISBN: 1250071909


Buy in the UK | Buy in Canada

Commissaire Georges Dupin is something of an exile from his native Paris. Due to certain "disputes" in the past, he found himself involuntarily relocated a while ago to Brittany and has slowly become not merely reconciled to his new surroundings, but appreciative of what the region has to offer.

FLEUR DE SEL is the third in the series and focusses on the salt marshes in Guérande and on the complexities of the trade that produces that high-priced commodity in small round cardboard boxes that has become a staple in many North American kitchens. Dupin has been tipped off by a journalist he knows that something odd is going on in the marshes, something involving blue barrels, and he is sniffing around, trying to figure out what might be amiss when he is grazed by a shot coming from somewhere undetermined.

It's an unexpected attack and one that angers Dupin, especially as his mind had been on his arrangements for a birthday dinner in his girlfriend's favourite Paris restaurant, a dinner that would now certainly have to be delayed. Shortly thereafter, it appears that the journalist who had tipped Dupin off to mysterious goings-on in the marshes was now missing. She would soon turn up dead.

In order to get to the bottom of all this, Dupin has to understand how the salt is produced and what might be happening in the marshes to motivate so violent a means to keep it secret. As he learns, so does the reader, who is additionally treated to Bannalec's lyrical descriptions of the natural beauty of the landscape. Another bonus is the inclusion of some ancient Breton legends, part of Dupin's gradual "Bretonization," the project of his assistant, Nolwenn.

It's just about now that we may be looking forward to a summer holiday, or wishing at least that we were taking one. FLEUR DE SEL is a competently plotted and well developed mystery, but its strength really lies in the vivid representation of an area of France perhaps less familiar to tourists than others. Dupin is not a native Breton and so he legitimately sees the land with fresh eyes. He is additionally a lover of good food and wine, and thus both surprised and pleased at what is on offer locally. His appreciation is so effectively conveyed that it had me out looking for fleur de sel caramels, which I found at some expense and devoured with pleasure. Trying to duplicate the Breton sole fried in salted butter, however, proved impossible.

Jean-Luc Bannalec himself is neither a Breton nor even French. The name is the pseudonym of a German author who splits his time between Germany and coastal Brittany. It is perhaps this circumstance that accounts for the outsider's sharpness of eye and the vividness of detail that makes this book so satisfying. The series first appeared in German and is very ably translated from that language by Sorcha McDonagh. I have not read the earlier entries in the series but was prompted to pick this one up because it brought to mind our reviewer, Christine Zibas, who did review the earlier books and who would have been first to request a copy of this one. Christine, sadly, passed away last year, but I still think of her whenever books featuring art, good food, and France come my way.

FLEUR DE SEL is a satisfying police procedural with strong characterization and evocative description. It may very well have you thinking about booking a trip to the Breton coast as well. I certainly am.

§ Yvonne Klein is a writer, translator, and retired college English professor who lives in Montreal. She's been editing RTE since 2008.

Reviewed by Yvonne Klein, March 2018

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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)


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