In France, a police detective hunts for an elusive killer in this novel by an award-winning author who "writes like no one else" (Los Angeles Times). In the tiny French town of Soulay, Inspector Henri Castang is dealing with a brutal robbery, a drugged teenager, and the sad delusions of a nervous old lady. But when a violent death suggests a mysterious connection to recent events in Paris Castang must untangle a mix of spiteful small-town gossip and big-city crime. This lively mystery comes from a winner of the Edgar and Gold Dagger Awards--"the most eccentric, the most idiosyncratic and the most European of crime writers" (Anita Brookner).