The Messengers of Death
  • Published: 3 September 2007
  • ISBN: 9780099470199
  • Imprint: Vintage
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 320
  • RRP: $26.99

The Messengers of Death

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A wonderfully atmospheric thriller set, like all Magnan's work, in Provence, and featuring his engaging detective, Commissaire Laviolette.

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 Champourcieux. He dutifully posts the letter. When the body of this same Madamoiselle is later discovered - pinned to her piano with an ancient bayonet - Commissaire Laviolette is coaxed out of retirement to solve one of the most bizarre crimes imaginable.
  • Published: 3 September 2007
  • ISBN: 9780099470199
  • Imprint: Vintage
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 320
  • RRP: $26.99
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About the author

Pierre Magnan

Pierre Magnan was born in Manosque in 1922 and has rarely left his native Provence. In 1943, during the Occupation, he fought with the Resistance in the Isère, and in 1946 he published his first novel, L'Aube Insolite. During his lifetime he published over twenty novels, four of which have so far been translated into English. He died in May 2012, at the age of 89.

portrait photo of Pierre Magnan

Also by Pierre Magnan

Death In The Truffle Wood
Beyond The Grave
Innocence
See all

Praise for The Messengers of Death

The author has developed a cunning sleight-of-hand in thrusting a key clue under the reader's nose, yet disguising it. Veteran reader of crime fiction though I am, I didn't guess correctly. But the atmosphere is most to be relished. The lavishly complicated plot unfolds among spine-tingling descriptions of remote Provence

Jane Jakeman, Independent

From real to surreal...This quirky story of avarice and vengeance in rural France unfolds with all the charm of a slightly puzzling art house french movie

Carla McKay, Daily Mail

A unique and disturbing summer read... Pierre Magnan is a complete original

Sunday Times

Crime fiction for those with a soul and a dark sense of humour

Independent on Sunday

Magnan chronicles the hidden passions seething below the apparently idyllic surface of rural life [in a style] closer to Flaubert than Midsomer Murders

Daily Telegraph

Magnan is a master storyteller... unmissable

Country Magazine