![]() ![]() As with the Dupin series, the novels feature alluring descriptions of a French landscape in Provence markedly different from the one in Brittany.įor binge-watchers, the Dupin books have been filmed in a German series, “Inspector Dupin,” available here in subtitled version on MHz Choice. These are the only two books in the series available in English, though four more have been published in German. In Deadly Camargue, Blanc is on the trail of a murderer who has discovered something about Van Gogh’s stay in nearby Arles. Murderous Mistral has Blanc, also a displaced Parisian, trying to solve a case amid the cold wind blowing through the Rhone Valley into the Camargue region on France’s southern coast. He had an earlier series set in postwar Hamburg, where he worked before he decamped to southern France, but that one is considerably grimmer and better suited, perhaps, to a non-pandemic environment. Not coincidentally, because Germany is the sixth-largest book market in the world and a leader in crime fiction, the Camargue series is also written by a German, Cay Rademacher, who uses his own name. More are surely on the way, since Bong just published #8 in German, Bretonisches Vermächtnis ( The Breton Legacy).įor variety, I’ve been alternating the Breton series with the Camargue mysteries, featuring Capitaine Roger Blanc (commissaires are officers in the French National Police, while capitaine is a rank in the National Gendarmerie, a branch of the armed forces that covers small towns and rural areas). Fleur de Sel is number three, so I still have The Missing Corpse (#4) and The Killing Tide(#5) available in English. In the meantime, I’ve gone back and read the first of the Dupin mysteries, Death in Brittany, followed by Murder on Brittany Shores. The descriptions of the esoteric fleur-de-sel business were so palpable that I promptly ordered some of the handcrafted Guerande product online. Besides the displaced Parisian Dupin, there are a number of quirky characters and considerable attention paid to food and wine. In any case, these novels are redolent of the mini-Mediterranean climate in Finistère - the end of the earth, as the region is known. His books are translated not from French, but from German. Jean-Luc’s real name is Jörg Bong (no kidding), and he works at a German publishing house when he’s not visiting his beloved Brittany. A friend pointed out that “Bannalec” is a quintessential Breton name, and indeed it should be because it was handpicked by the German author who hides behind this pseudonym. ![]() It began for me with The Fleur de Sel Murders by Jean-Luc Bannalec, featuring the curmudgeonly Commissaire Georges Dupin, but most of all featuring the balmy environs of Brittany’s southwestern coast. ![]() There is a personal element of homesickness for me since I lived in that country for 11 years, but I think anyone confined to quarters and unable to visit one of the most-visited nations on the planet can benefit from these armchair sojourns. My own solution is binge-reading mystery series set in France. Many of the book lists are worthy - perhaps too worthy for the distracted state we find ourselves in. The coronavirus lockdown has brought a cornucopia of lists for binge-watching on TV and a fair number of lists for books to read. ![]()
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