Orion Publishing Group: 2692 books

The Dashkova Ballet Company - a visiting Russian troupe led by Inspector Gautier's charming Soviet mistress, Princess Sophia - is about to become the toast of Paris when the famous Judge Prudhomme is found with a bullet in his heart in a squalid hotel room. And when the corpse of the beautiful prima...

The victim is Sophie Monterant: a young actress who is already challenging the divine Sarah Bernhardt for the finest roles. Inspector Gautier visits the theatre to see Sophie at the first night of Dame aux Camélias, but the first night is also to be her last: after the curtain fall, Sophie eats a...

When a young chambermaid is found dead, bitten by a cobra concealed in the bed of notorious libertine Armand de Périgord, Inspector Jean-Paul Gautier is certain that she was not the intended victim. The charismatic de Périgord is very wealthy and has never married, and some very salacious stories...

A colourful banquet at the Château Perdrix is noisily interrupted by Bishop Arkwright, an American trying to spread the cause of temperance in Europe. Inspector Gautier intervenes and has the bishop expelled. Later that night Michael O'Flynn, the Grand Officier of the Chevaliers, is murdered in the...

Two dramatically contrasting episodes face Inspector Gautier in his latest mystery: the death by stabbing of the vicar of the fashionable church of Saint Clothilde in the confessional box; and the theft of the Duchesse de Paiva's diamond necklace during the extravagant fête thrown by Armand de Saules...

A painter has vanished: normally an event of no importance, but Théo is the heir to a fortune, and so Inspector Gautier of the Sûreté is put on the case. Then a shady art dealer is murdered. A dealer who had acquired three paintings under dubious circumstances, from a minor artist who died in similarly...

When both his holiday plans and love affair collapse, London doctor Charles Mackinnon agrees to act as locum in Skye, looking forward to a peaceful stay. However, within hours of his arrival he witnesses someone being thrown off a distant cliff into the sea. When the body of Jamie Gillespie...

Everyone had agreed that the industrialist Mark Bascombe had committed suicide, even the coroner. Only Bascombe's son David believed - or professed to believe - that it was murder. And it was he who had hired private investigator John Bryant, rather belatedly it is true, to investigate his father's...

The small Hebridean island of Alsaig is facing a crisis. It is famous for its only export, a particularly fine malt whisky, upon which most of the islanders depend for their livelihood. But the distillery is threatened with a takeover by an American firm, which would not only make many of the workforce...

Disillusioned with life in the South of France, Hurford accepts an assignment for British Intelligence. He is told that, under the cover of a teaching post in Moscow, he will simply be expected to relay information back to Britain from a highly prized source. Once in Moscow, however, Hurford...

When a homemade bomb explodes on a houseboat moored on the Seine, following two brutal stabbings in Pigalle, the Paris police receive a list of targets for assassination that includes the President of the Republic himself. Each murder will be announced beforehand by the arrival of a playing card. Inspector...

With the Entente Cordiale still in its infancy, the Sûreté had assigned Inspector Gautier to keep a protective eye on English visitors to Paris for the racing at Longchamps. But it was not the English who engaged Gautier's attention, but an Irish surgeon - Michael Breen. Breen, fêted by...

Returning to Paris, Inspector Gautier is devastated to learn that his Dutch mistress Ingrid has been brutally murdered. Before he can begin to investigate, the British Ambassador informs Gautier that his daughter has been abducted in England. With the help of Sylvie, a secretary at the French Embassy,...

When the valet of a German baron visiting Paris is stabbed to death, the murder is not allowed to interfere with the glittering social life of the Belle Epoque. Inspector Gautier has scarcely begun to investigate the murder when he is instructed to make secret enquiries into a case of espionage...