Titre original : Dans les griffes d'un ange - Traduction de Mike Bayliss
A spectacular but baffling murder is committed during the course of a ceremony being held by the Confrérie des Entonneurs Rabelaisiens, the famous wine brotherhood in Chinon, bringing turmoil to this ancient and peaceful town in Touraine …
The gendarmes very quickly find themselves embroiled in an investigation made all the more difficult because they have to deal with kidnappings and killings carried out after the victims have been subjected to horrific torture. For Lieutenant Georges, heading up the team of detectives, there are very many questions but not much to go on. With his assistant Gendron and the latter’s young protégée, the feisty Patricia, he will need a cool head and all his insight to unravel the false trails and find a common thread linking these increasingly murky cases. As an additional complication, he will have to take his enquiries well beyond the victims’ present circumstances and pursue his investigations back into the past – a not so distant past, but one already forgotten by the townspeople of Chinon.
This is a mystery full of twists and turns, weaving a tale based on a real but little known historic event. There is a cast of interesting characters, amongst whom the real villains are not always those one might suspect.