Pel And The Touch Of Pitch (13) (Inspector Pel) - Softcover

Hebden, Mark

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1842329022 ISBN 13: 9781842329023

Publisher: House of Stratus, 2009

Synopsis

When Chief Inspector Pel accepts a drinks invitation at the house of a big shot, Deputy Claude Barclay, he doesn't realise how compromised he will become by his acceptance. Shortly afterwards, Barclay is kidnapped; the partially decomposed body of a retired soldier is discovered in a wood and a series of art forgeries need investigating. Pel must tie all three together and solve a scandal, which has become the talk of France.

About this title

About the Author:

John Harris, who also wrote under the pen names of 'Mark Hebden' and 'Max Hennessy', was born in 1916. He authored the best-selling and later filmed 'The Sea Shall Not Have Them', a story of survival and rescue from World War II which continues to be periodically screened on TV. He was a sailor, an airman, a journalist, a travel courier, a cartoonist and a history teacher. During the War Harris managed to serve with two air forces and two navies. After turning to full-time writing, he wrote adventure stories, war novels, political thrillers, and also created a sequence of crime novels around the quirky French Chief Inspector Pel, centred primarily in Burgundy, but occasionally Paris and elsewhere. Harris was unusually versatile and wide ranging as an author. Epics such as 'China Seas', which deals with human tragedy, war and revolution in an authentic historical setting, and the three trilogies written under the pseudonym Max Hennessy - one of which, the Kelly Maguire series commencing with 'Lion at Sea' is reckoned to be amongst the finest modern war-at-sea stories written - along with African adventure novels, wide-ranging crime, mysteries and historical fiction, all guarantee a whole library of diverse and entertaining reading full of dry wit and gripping prose.

From Publishers Weekly:

Fans of Chief Inspector Evariste Clovis Desire Pel ( Pel Among the Pueblos and Pel and the Pirates ) will welcome this latest mystery. On the eve of national elections local Deputy Claude Barclayart collector, hero of Dien Bien Phu and patron of many worthy causesis kidnapped. Paris suspects terrorists and sends a special squad to Burgundy to investigate. The newspapers have a field day, implying all sorts of international and political plots as well as police ineptitude. The special squad leader removes Pel from the case because he had once been a guest at Barclay's home. At the same time, Pel is working on a murder of an old soldier, while his assistant, Sergeant Jean-Luc Nosjean, is investigating a series of art forgeries, one of them possibly involving a painting of Barclay's. As a connection begins to develop between the cases, the irascible Pel works behind the scenes to solve the kidnapping. Along the way he discovers a most luxurious house of ill repute and, as always, confounds his enemies. Hebden delivers another delightful police procedural, French style, with some nice touches on country life and the private lives of the cops.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: House of Stratus
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 1842329022
• ISBN 13: 9781842329023
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 254