“It’s a fine example of the craft of detective writing in a period which some regard as the golden age of crime fiction.”—The Sunday Telegraph
The death of a traveling salesman appears to be an open and shut case. Studer is confronted with an obvious suspect and a confession to the murder. But nothing is what it seems. Envy, hatred, and the corrosive power of money lie just beneath the surface. Studer’s investigation soon splinters the glassy façade of Switzerland’s tidy villages and manicured forests.
Diagnosed a schizophrenic, addicted to morphine and opium, Friedrich Glauser spent the greater part of his life in psychiatric wards, insane asylums and prison. His acute observations conjure up a world of those at the margins of society.

Thumbprint (A Sergeant Studer Mystery)

Literature & Fiction

Friedrich Glauser

Literary

Bitter Lemon Press

“Boisterous black comedy . . . funny and goodhearted, with much incident and expert enthusiasm for sex, food and drink.”—The Literary Review
“Much to enjoy in the clash of cultures and superstitions, even a tasty recipe for poisoning your friends with pasta. Detail like this places European crime writing on a par with its American counterpart.”—Belfast Independent
Some favors simply cannot be refused. Tonio agrees to write a love letter for Dario, a low-rent Paris gigolo. When Dario is murdered, a single bullet to the head, Tonio finds he has been left a small vineyard near Naples. The wine is undrinkable, but an elaborate scam has been set up. The smell of easy money attracts the unwanted attentions of the Mafia and the Vatican and the unbridled hatred of the locals. Mafiosi aren’t choir boys, and monsignors can be very much like Mafiosi.
Winner of three mystery prizes in one year, including the Grand Prix de la Littérature Policière and the Prix Mystère de la Critique.
Tonino Benacquista, born in France of Italian immigrants, dropped out of film studies to finance his writing career. After being in turn a museum watchman, a train guard on the Paris-Rome line and a professional parasite on the Paris cocktail circuit, he is now a highly successful author of fiction and film scripts.

Holy Smoke

Humor & Entertainment

Benacquista, Tonino

Humor

“At fifty the good Buddhist takes to the road, leaving all his belongings behind. His sole possession is a begging bowl. That’s how it should be. The problem was, there were four million dollars in my begging bowl and the mafia were after me. It was their money. They wanted it back, and they also wanted the girl, the woman who was with me: Sonia Kovalevskaya”.
Not only a thriller about murder and big money but also a powerful evocation of the cruel history that binds Russia and Germany.
Günter Ohnemus, born in 1946, lives in Munich and writes novels, essays and translations. This is his first novel to be translated into English.

The Russian Passenger

Ohnemus, Günter

“Pelletier is a wonderful storyteller. She is a master of funny, bittersweet dialogue. A classic roman noir hero, the world weary inspector, is completely reinvented.”—Le Monde
The naked bodies of a male dancer and a young girl are found entwined backstage in the Moulin Rouge. A junkie is killed, his throat chewed open, the teeth marks human. Seemingly unconnected, these deaths form a sinister pattern involving crack dealers and shady property deals.
Inspector Maurice Less is plagued by a female boss who bombards him with tales of her sexual exploits. Together they uncover a trail of fear and broken dreams that reaches from Corsica into the heart of Paris.
Winner of the Grand Prix du Roman Noir de Cognac.

Goat Song: Murder and Mayhem in Montmartre

Pelletier, Chantal

“Both a scathing and picaresque comedy, a biting and spicy concoction. Just like tequila.”—Le MondeIt’s not easy being a cop in Mexico City. Meet Carlito, a police detective with a complicated life. A wife, a mistress, children by both. He resorts to money laundering and arms dealing to finance his police activity. The money for justice must be found somewhere.The corpse in the hotel room is that of a gringo with a weakness for blue movies. Carlito’s maverick investigation leads him into a labyrinth of gang wars and corrupt politicians.Rolo Diez, born in Argentina, was imprisoned for two years during the military dictatorship. He now lives in Mexico City, where he works as a novelist and screenwriter.

Tequila Blue

Díez, Rolo

“Prose that penetrates the reader’s mind like speed, fast paced, without an ounce of fat.”—Weltwoche
He’s found five pounds of top--quality Peruvian cocaine in a suit-case. Pur-sued by the police and drug traffickers the luckless Blum falls prey to the frenzied paranoia of the cocaine addict and dealer. This is a fast-paced thriller written with acerbic humour, a hardboiled evocation of drug-fuelled existence and a penetrating observation of those at the edge of German society.
Having broken his addiction to on heroin at the age of thirty, Jörg Fauser spent much of the rest of his life dependent on alcohol. He died aged forty-three in 1987, run over by a truck at four am on a German highway.

The Snowman

Fauser, Jörg

“Despairing plot about the reality of madness and life, leavened with strong doses of bittersweet irony. The idiosyncratic investigation and its laconic detective haven’t aged one iota.”—Guardian
A child-murderer escapes from a Swiss insane asylum. The stakes get higher when Detective Sergeant Studer discovers the director’s body, neck broken, in the boiler room of the madhouse. The intuitive Studer is drawn into the workings of an institution that darkly mirrors the world outside. Even he cannot escape the pull of the no man’s land between reason and madness where Matto, the spirit of insanity, reigns.
Addicted to morphine, Friedrich Glauser spent much of his life in psychiatric wards and prison. He began writing mystery novels while an asylum inmate in 1935.

In Matto's Realm: A Sergeant Studer Mystery

A nine-year-old boy is found murdered at the bottom of a well near a beach resort in southern Italy. In what looks like a hopeless case for Guido Guerrieri, counsel for the defence, a Senegalese peddler is accused of the crime. More than a perfectly paced legal thriller, this relentless suspense novel transcends the genre. A powerful attack on racism, and a fascinating insight into the Italian judicial process, it is also an affectionate portrait of a deeply humane hero.
Gianrico Carofiglio is an anti-Mafia judge in Italy. This is his first novel, a bestseller in Italy and now the subject of a television series. It has won a number of prizes, including the Marisa Rusconi award.

Involuntary Witness

Carofiglio, Gianrico

“A magnificent novel. Haunted by the tragic story and passion of its characters.”—Magazine Littéraire
The first of the Havana quartet featuring Inspector Mario Conde, a tropical Marlowe. A young transvestite in a beautiful red dress is found strangled in a Havana park. Conde’s investigation into a violent murder exposes a stifling, corrupt society, a Cuban reality where nothing is what it seems. A dark and fascinating world of men and women born in the revolution who live without dreaming of exile and seek their identity in the midst of disaster.
Leonardo Padura lives in Cuba. He is a novelist, essayist, journalist and scriptwriter. Havana Red has won numerous literary prizes, including the Hammett prize in Spain.

Havana Red (Mario Conde Investigates)

Padura, Léonardo

Genre Fiction

“A wonderful portrait of a woman both imperial and bruised, a greying ravaged mother-wolf that still controls all those around her. A novel of rhythm and grace, a beautiful voyage with the gypsies.”—Le Monde
The story of Angelina, a gypsy matriarch, whose tribe is exiled to the outskirts of a French city. A young librarian comes to introduce the children to books and stories. She gradually gains their confidence and accompanies them through an eventful and tragic year. Ferney’s distinctive style powerfully involves the reader in the family’s disasters, its comic moments, in the love lives of the five boys, the bravery of the children, and, eventually, in Angelina’s final gesture of defiance.
Winner of the literary prize Culture et Bibliothèques.

Angelina's Children

Ferney, Alice

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