The Messengers of Death

Emile Pencenat is in a cemetery, designing his own ornate tomb. In a disused postbox by the gate he discovers an envelope addressed to a Mlle Veronique Champourcieux. He is puzzled but, being a former postman, he dutifully purchases a stamp and posts the letter. When the body of this same Mlle Veronique is later discovered - pinned to her own piano by a bayonet attached to an ancient rifle - Commissaire Laviolette is coaxed out of retirement to solve one of the most bizarre crimes imaginable. Tautly plotted and brimming with suspense, Magnan's latest novel to be translated into English is a story of dark vengeance and avarice, linking the peasant community of Upper Provence to nineteenth-century South Africa.