Knock ’em Dead: A Captain Darac Mystery

At the outset of Morfoot’s entertaining fourth mystery featuring Capt. Paul Darac of the Nice Brigade Criminelle (after 2018’s Box of Bones), the affable Darac is called to the Saint-Laurent-du-Var railway station, where a man has fallen in front of a train from a spot on a passenger platform not covered by CCTV cameras. Is it suicide or murder? Possessions retrieved near the remains identify him as Ambroise Paillaud, a well-known comic film star who specialized in pratfalls. The claim of a woman in a nearby apartment to have seen Paillaud jump of his own accord turns out to be a lie. A return train ticket and a timed admission for that afternoon to a photography exhibit in Paillaud’s possessions suggest that he wasn’t planning to kill himself. The subsequent murder of someone connected to Paillaud by several blows to the head confirms Darac’s hunch that the film star was a victim of foul play. The amusing rapport between Darac and his team nicely enhances the tricky plot. Fans of Martin Walker’s French police series will want to check out Morfoot. (July)