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Silver-Tongued by David Barrie (view source)
Revision as of 20:05, 8 January 2018
, 20:05, 8 January 2018no edit summary
''Silver-Tongued'' is the sixth book in David Barrie's Captain Franck Guerin series and they've all been consistently good. Guerin's an appealing character: a caffeine addict with an unusual history in the ''Brigade Criminelle'', he's wedded to the job and seemingly unworried about what he has to do to solve the cases which come his way. He's supported in all his cases by the same ''juge d'instruction'' and forensic investigators and they make a good and believable team.
Paris must be one of the greatest locations in the world for a police procedural and Barrie brings it to life brilliantly. I sometimes wonder if he's going to go just a little ''too'' far in the historical background he provides, but he always manages to stay just nicely on the side of being informative rather than obviously educational. I always come away from these books feeling that I've learned a great deal without having had to make a lotl lot of effort. It's not just tourist Paris which you're going to see either: quite a few of the places you'll visit are probably the ones you'd much rather avoid.
So, great characters who come off the page fully formed and a location to die for - quite literally in this case - but it's the plot you really want to know about isn't it? We're back in 2012 and Barrie taps into the rise of the ultra right wing in politics and the way that many groups of people are perceived as outsiders. It's thought provoking and very relevant. I did work out the name of the murderer and what was behind it, but not until quite late in the book and it certainly didn't spoil my enjoyment of the story.