Un grison d'Arcadie

by Pierre Magnan

A Manosque, Pierrot, 15 ans, part à l'aube cueillir des escargots dans les collines. Il entend un coup de feu. Nous sommes en 1945, des coups de feu Pierrot en a entendu beaucoup au cours des années précédentes. Il pense que son voisin, le boulanger, qu'il voit s'enfuir de la ruine où il se cachait, vient de braconner quelque faisan, mais, sa cueillette achevée, il se heurte au cadavre d'un personnage considérable. C'est le capitaine Patrocle, un héros de la Résistance. Quelque chose est en train de glisser du portefeuille du mort : c'est une lettre sur papier bleu qui est la clé du mystère. Pierrot s'en empare et remet le portefeuille en place. Dès lors il ne va plus vivre que dans la crainte d'être dépossédé de cette lettre qu'il a glissée dans son béret. Ce béret qui à la fin fera éclater la tragédie.

Genres: France, Crime

288 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1999

About the author

Pierre Magnan was a bestselling French author of detective novels steeped in the sights and sounds of his beloved Provence; to readers, his sleuth, Commissaire Laviolette, was as indelibly linked to the land of lavender as Colin Dexter’s Inspector Morse was to the colleges of Oxford.

Magnan’s autumnal years were prolific; he wrote more than 30 books and saw his novels adapted for French television and cinema. He was never afraid to experiment and shifted easily to non-fiction, writing, amongst other publications, a gentle portrait of Giono (Pour Saluer Giono, 1990), a study of Provençal novels (Les Romans de ma Provence, 1998) and two volumes of memoirs. In The Essence of Provence (1998) he followed the story of L’Occitane from roadside soap stand to globally known brand. “La Provence was present in all his books,” noted Marie-Laure Goumet, his editor at Robert Laffont.

Reviews

[Alan Pottinger · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bit disappointed with this one as I normally love this authors work but this somehow went nowhere, he was far too preoccupied with sexual content and I was left wondering if I'd missed something along the way - Magnan is without a doubt a great wordsmith and conjures up rural France beautifully but I wanted more story and less carnal activity.

[Jean Moynahan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really liked Magnan's DEATH IN THE TRUFFLE WOOD--the MURDERED HOUSE, not so much. INNOCENCE, however, I loved. Complex, tragic, profound, and beautifully written, the novel also evokes (as do the other two) rural Provence in a way that only someone who lived there for 90-plus years can (as Magnan did). A memorable book.

[Joan · Rating 4 out of 5]

A poor young man with a secret and a passion for more. It cost him his innocence and changed his life.. Very unsettling at times. He is targeted by an olden woman who wants to know the secret. She's unscrupulous, she takes her time, woos him and gets her wish. He then discovers the truth and it brings him no joy but many years later he keeps his promise and writes about her life and the truth of what happened.