Helpful Score: 2
Bogner offers a spooky evocation of the horror that can live alongside all that great food and scenery. We first find top copper Michel Danton recovering from shotgun wounds while working in his father's restaurant in Aix, where "fresh strings of Arles sausage and legs of jambon de Bayonne slyly waltzed on their hooks in the window." Michel's father is a tyrant, and his latest lady friend has just dumped him, so he's ready for a new case. Enter Darrell Vernon Boynton, a charming young psychopath called Boy by the women he conquers and the wealthy tourists he murders. Boy is a true descendant of Hannibal Lecter, and the only reason he hasn't eaten any of his victims is that the other food in Provence is too tempting. But be warned: not many other atrocities are beyond his imagination. As Bogner has proven in such previous blockbusters as Seventh Avenue and California Dreamers, he has the imagination to create nightmare landscapes in all manner of settings--and the writing skills to quickly make us a part of them.
Helpful Score: 2
characterization good, plot a little slow, serious detective ficiton
