The Messengers of Death: A Mystery in Provence

by Pierre Magnan

Book Overview

In a sleepy Provencal village, retired postman Emile Pencenat is busy digging his own grave when he spots an unstamped letter in the cemetery's disused postbox, addressed to a Madamoiselle... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0312387563
• ISBN13: 9780312387563
• Release Date: September 2008
• Publisher: Minotaur Books
• Length: 311 Pages
• Weight: 0.85 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 5.5" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

charming and clever

I didn't have any trouble getting into this book as the one reviewer did. I figured that any stiltedness came from translation - plus these characters are not ones who would be super talkative anyway. What I enjoyed most was the clever way the author described settings and wry social interactions. For instance, the descriptions of whether the local postmistress has read or seen the person posting the letter later known to be written by the murderer: we see the postmistress speculating about it, the detective thinking to himself she probably read it, the umbrage she takes at the idea of her offending the privacy of the post! Oolala, the little character points. The murders and the reasons behind them were set up well to make you want to know why these women are being targeted and just what "treasure" it is the murderer wants that they are hiding. The author does a nice job of using the environment and setting to increase the sense of some tragedy playing out. Yet at the same time it feels a lot like a "cozy" or "country house" mystery. We feel buffered from too much gore, and the provincial setting with all the townspeople and their little ways reminded me a bit of Agatha Christie. I plan to read the others as they are translated to English.

A Dark and Stormy Night in France . . .

If you're willing to engage in quite a bit of suspension of disbelief, you'll be rewarded by smart writing, engaging characters and a page-turner plot set in the dark yet appealing French countryside. The dialogue seems a bit awkward, sort of like anime cartoons translated from Japanese. It's understandable, but English speakers don't usually speak as disjointedly as the French characters do.