Murderous Mistral by Cay Rademacher

St. Martin’s Press, 281 pages, $16.99 (c2017)

Ah, to be in Provence in the south of France! The food, the wine, the relaxed atmosphere! Captain Roger Blanc did not see his reassignment to Gadet in Provence as something positive. His fall from the heights in Paris was rapid and final. He had uncovered corruption there and it was not appreciated. He loved his wife and children but that, too, was not appreciated. Within a couple of days, Blanc had gone from a prestigious job in the Paris gendamerie and being a happy family man to being “sentenced” to a rundown house in Sainte-Françoise-la-Vallé to live and in a cupboard of an office in Gadet to work, without his wife or children who had gone to live with her lover.

Blanc is a by-the-rules kind of guy. His bête noire is probably the easy-going life. But one thing hasn’t changed; there are just as many political toes to avoid as in Paris. Welcome to Gadet! Forget the sleepy town scenario, however. First there is a charred corpse found at the garbage dump. It had been plugged by bullets from a Kalashnikov before being burned. Then the juge d’instruction, the person who holds the fate of his case in her hands, turns out to be the wife of his old boss in Paris, the one who exiled Blanc to the paradise of Provence. And to top it off, the deadly mistral begins bringing heavy winds, cold misery, and the ill-will of a wind that blows no good.

Cay Rademacher brings a je ne sais quois to his story. He presents the smells (mostly thyme), the sounds (mostly loud motors and roosters), and the sights of a truly beautiful region. They add a quality to the story that makes it more than just entertaining. Everything seems to say relax, drink some wine, grill a sausage, take a nap, have a romance, avoid forest fires. As Rademacher explores Blanc’s murder case, he entwines it with the essence of the region.

Meet Second Lieutenant Fabienne Souillard and Lieutenant Marius Tonon, Blanc’s new cohorts. They help Blanc come to terms with how things are done in that part of the world. Paris intensity meets Provençal ease. Despite how Rademacher presents the sublime qualities of the French countryside, this story is not quite a cozy. On the other hand, it is not the noir of Jean-Claude Izzo’s Marseilles series either. Rest in-between those worlds and enjoy.