Death on the Marais

Lucas Rocco #1

by Adrian Magson

She was going to die. She could feel it, her life ebbing away as surely as fine sand through fingers.

France, 1963. It’s a time of great change, not least for Inspector Lucas Rocco. As part of a nationwide ‘initiative’ to broaden police operations, he finds himself moved from the Paris metropolis to a small village. His new patch might be rural, but it’s certainly not on his first day, he finds a murdered woman wearing a Gestapo uniform lying in a British military cemetery. When the body is removed by order of a magistrate from the police mortuary before Rocco can finish his investigation, he realizes he’s up against a formidable enemy. An enemy who will go to any lengths – even murder – to stop his investigation.

Genres: Crime, Mystery, Detective, Fiction, France, Mystery Thriller, Thriller

416 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2011

About the author

Adrian Magson is a British crime-writer, his books often involve conspiracies, and have two repeating main characters - Riley Gavin, a young female investigative reporter, and Frank Palmer, a former RMP (British Royal Military Policeman) now a private investigator.

Reviews

[Richard · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tremendous opening and the story builds thereafter into a wonderful crime thriller, At last a modern author to succeed Georges Simenon's gentle french detective fiction. Descriptive writing at its best setting the mood, a sense of place and giving life to a range of genuine local characters. Re-located from the City to a rural location our hero Lucas Rocco finds thrills and danger he may have expected to leave behind him in Paris. This is a classic in the making from an author who understands his craft and delivers more than any reader could ask or expect. One of the best books I have read where a new series of crime stories is begun and I can not wait just for the sequel but hope these stories last throughout this decade and Rocco is spoken of and compared with the likes of Maigret, Rebus and Wallander.

[Kathy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This introduction to the police inspector Rocco is successful in delivering a great deal of gnarly action as a wooded wetland littered with WW2 ordnance is the scene of several conflicts involving those who fall under Rocco's careful inspection. You would think a Paris cop would not be able to cope with his new assignment in the countryside but he is up to the challenge. So...why would there still be grenades and trip wires in the early 1960's? Well, there seems to be one particular character responsible for the danger. Uncovering the network of relationships made during the war becomes part of Rocco's focus after the body of a young woman is found.
The characters are unique and interesting and more than one could be considered evil personified.
Rock on, Rocco.

Very good price right now for the kindle.

[RuthG · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had no idea what to expect when I started this book, since I had never read anything by Adrian Magson. I found myself drawn into the story immediately and just had to keep reading. The plot was just complicated enough to involve multiple periods of time without being confusing and the location was easy to picture in my mind. Probably the author pictured it differently but that doesn't matter. Lucas Rocco is a very believable detective and his history definitely explains his quirks. Very likely I read others in this series.

[Rob Kitchin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Death on the Marais has many good qualities: an interesting main character in Inspector Lucas Rocco, a nice sense of place, and engaging prose that’s easy on the eye. The story unfolds at a fast clip, tugging the reader along, and the plot has a nice mix of a cop out of place and historical intrigue. The main plot is lively and intriguing and the subplot involving Rocco’s new boss, Massin, with whom he has an old enmity, unfolds nicely. There are two flaws in the story, however, which have niggled away at me since finishing the book. It’s difficult to talk about either in specific terms without giving spoilers, however, in general terms: Rocco is thorough in what he does but occasionally he notes to himself that he needs to do something, such as searching somewhere, then ignores it; the killer also leaves a large thorn in the side unresolved and yet is ruthless otherwise. Neither made little sense other than as plot devices and both worked to undermine what was otherwise an fine piece of storytelling. Nonetheless, I enjoyed Death on the Marais and look forward to catching up with Rocco in his next case.

[Doreen Richards · Rating 4 out of 5]

Riveting book. Of a different time and of a different place. Lots of local characters from centuries of living in a provincial era. A period piece in some ways, like the difficulties in getting a telephone put in. An excellent plot. Thoroughly enjoyed it.

[Floss Crabbe]

I thoroughly enjoyed this.

[Mystica · Rating 4 out of 5]

1963 France and Inspector Rocco is not the most popular of people. Each chapter started with one of his seniors making a comment on Rocco - his tenacity, his rough attitude, his way of getting things done, his not sticking to protocol, regulations or procedure. A lone wolf.

Transferred to a small village with no crime records, the worst that happens is a brawl between two drunken old men. On Rocco's arrival looked with distrust amongst villagers who feel he is an "outsider" the crimes start. The first victim is the daughter of one of France's most eminent citizens, though a shady character in his own right. Identified as Natalie Berbier no one in the police hierarchy wants to touch the case because of its powerful implications but when the body is
whisked from the morgue back to Paris, Rocco moves in the only way he knows how.

Uncovering plots which go back decades to the time of WWII and which no one wants to talk about - Resistance and Communists, also traitors to the cause and many deaths in the village, pieces slowly begin to unravel and the Police top dogs have to take action despite their initial unwillingness.

Highlighting police detection though a trifle unorthodox, police corruption prevalent in every society uptil now, the story was an excellent read. I will be looking out for subsequent numbers.

The setting is bleak, not picturesque at all but it all adds to the darkness of the story.

[Sreader · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good read, loose ends tidied up ina way that did not always made sense to me.

[Elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Marais is the French word for marsh and that is what Inspector Lucas Rocco found when he was transferred. He had been a Paris policeman when the Interior Ministry felt that rural provinces needed some Parisian expertise in law enforcement and Rocco was sent to a town in a northwest province of France. His superiors had a few interesting things to say of him “That he was an insubordinate bastard, insolent as well as pushy, dogmatic and a nobody, reckless…a rebel. A good cop though.
Rocco expects the new assignment to be quiet, uneventful and maybe boring but he doesn’t expect that the first thing he runs into in the village to be a crowd pulling a dead woman from the marsh at the edge of a war cemetery wearing a Gestapo uniform twenty years after the war was over.
Rocco’s war experiences were of a later era. He spent his army days in the jungles of Indochina during the conflict between the French and the Vietnamese after France reoccupied the area after WWII.
Once the woman is identified as the daughter of a well-connected wealthy man named Phillippe Bayer-Barbier the detective heads back to Paris following the trail of very dirty secrets.
There is an interesting cast of ancillary characters in this village, the local policeman, a tramp whose expertise is defusing bombs left over from the war as well as several people who service a small mansion where Parisian men come for nefarious mostly sexual purposes and perversions.

[Dominic · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have a massive stack of books to read because I browse my ereader store constantly and am drawn irrisistably towards second hand book shops, however, when visiting my Grandad the other day he leant me this book and I didn't want to decline. When I borrow a book I feel it is only polite to read it fairly quickly so that:

a) You remember that you have borrowed it and don't own it (I have lost several books when people borrowed them and forgot it wasn't theirs!)
b) You can talk about it with them next time you meet.

So I picked this book up, despite having several I would rather have read, and started reading. What a page turner! I was reading over 100 pages a day. I often find detective fiction very hit and miss, it's an incredibly saturated genre, but I thought that this one was well written and also quite unique in its setting of early '60s rural France. Frustratingly this means that I now want to read others in this series and my reading list has now got much longer! But whilst I'm waiting for the next Gerion Rath book to be translated from German, I can get my historical-European-detective fix from Lucas Rocco instead.

If you like your historical fiction and detective stories then this is definitely one for you.

[Dave · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed reading this murder mystery set in rural France during the early 1960's. The characters and the locations seemed true to place and time. The protagonist, Lucas Rocco, is a fascinating character not unlike a bull in a china shop. The author does a great job of uncovering the clues piece by piece, until Rocco reveals all near the end of the story. I picked up this book because I had read a couple of Adrian Magson's other books and loved them. Now that I have had a taste of the Lucas Rocco series, I will be setting out to read the rest of them.

[Cybercrone · Rating 3 out of 5]

I started this series in the middle, read to the end, and have now started at the beginning to read what I'd missed.
I've enjoyed the tight plots, action, personalities and cultural references in the books. Also, for someone with even a very slight knowledge of French, there are a couple sly and funny references stuck in here and there.
The one problem is the editing. All of the books have words missing and/or sentences that just end before getting to where they are supposed to.
I hope the series continues.

[Martina · Rating 3 out of 5]

Probably more than a 3 but less than a 4, only because of the ending. I liked Lucas Rocco very much, as well as his fellow police. I liked the setting, especially the sense of place in the marais. I liked the connection to the French fighting in Indochina. The ending, however, seemed like piling on--the rest of the story was intriguing but not, well, I can't say more without spoiling the story, and I do intend to follow up with subsequent Rocco books. : }

[Hana · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lucas Rocco might become one of favourite detectives - a no-nonsense man wit sharp instincts and a bit of humor. The story was interesting, on the surface several different threads that are bound together in the end. Some things are a bit obvious, others are not - I really didn't expect money being the main motivator nor the fact that a father can murder his daughter. Anyway, I am looking forward to reading next book.

[Lynette Ledoux · Rating 4 out of 5]

There’s only 5 or 6 books in this series, read them all sequentially. This series is akin to the Commissioner Brunetti series by Dona Leon or Martin Walker’s Bruno, Chief of Police. In fact i read all of Walkers Bruno series to date; i read the last few hoping that the storyline would get better. It didn’t.

[Judie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Second time around for Death on the Marais - excellent police procedural with characters who will
keep me re-reading this series. What a wonderful world Adrian Magson has created in this book.

[Sara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great mystery novel with an interesting French detective as the main character. Highly enjoyable.

[Jeanette de Montalk · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed the story and plotting although the protagonist is a bit of a male superhero, and there are one or two flaws in the plot.

[Robert Ashford · Rating 5 out of 5]

excellant voyage through time and the marais of France. Well placed detective with a growing collection of other ongoing characters.

[Gail Barrington · Rating 3 out of 5]

Looks like a good series. I have ordered the second one already!

[Gerald H · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book. An especially strong and diverse group of compelling characters. Plot development is slightly uneven, but very good when all is said and done.

[William Beauvais · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great start to a series and am now on the fourth one

[Christine Walker · Rating 4 out of 5]

Intrigue,deception and callousness

Twists and turns throughout. A very intriguing tale, exposing corruption and greed, revenge and ruthlessness spanning a number of years.

[Cerisaye · Rating 4 out of 5]

Set in France in the early 1960s, this crime thriller introduces Inspector Lucas Rocco sent as part of a government policing initiative from Paris to the provincial setting of Poissons-les-Marais in Picardie. Not only is Rocco a fish out of water in this rural backwater but his new boss Police Commissaire Massin is his former army Commanding Officer about whom he knows a discomforting secret. And the quaint cottage he rents has 'fruit rats' running rampage in the attic!

On Rocco's first day the discovery of the body of a young woman wearing a Gestapo uniform recalls uncomfortable memories of the German Occupation, and the subsequent investigation uncovers connections between the Resistance and present day politics and power.

The provincial setting and 60s time period piqued my interest, something a bit different. France at this time only reluctantly acknowledged that not everyone had been active in the Resistance, at least before the tide of war turned against the Germans in early 1943. Most people did what they could, what they had to do to survive the harsh conditions of the times, some were heroes of resistance and others opportunists who took advantage of the situation for personal gain. This ambivalence makes a suitable background for a tense crime mystery but the main attraction is Lucas Rocco, a tough down-to-earth policeman haunted by his own wartime experiences in Indo-China,with a failed marriage and a bit of attitude towards authority. Rocco is likeable and I look forward to getting to know him over the series. Good to see, too, no shoe-horned in love stuff, just an involving but not over-complicated crime plot, enough period atmosphere and local colour without overdoing it, and some humour in its portrayal of rural life.

[Soozee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lucas Rocca has been a detective in Paris for years; slightly maverick, carrying baggages from his service in the Indochina War. However, a new police initiative sees him sent to a small, rural village, where he settles in but finds life is not as quiet as he expected. A young woman's body is found, and it transpires she is the daughter of a very influential Parisian who immediately takes the body and tries to quash the investigation. However, Rocco is made of sterner stuff.

He meets some real characters in the village, and as it is set in 1963, the war is still within living memory. Fortunately he has Claude to guide him through.

The result makes for an interesting and tense read, as Rocco walks the tightrope of not upsetting those politically motivated, but in fighting for justice. Clearly, as in America, in France Justice is not blind if you have enough power and money to swerve her.

I'll certainly be looking out for more from this series.

[Diane V-R · Rating 3 out of 5]

3,5 stars

[Megan B · Rating 4 out of 5]

A well-written murder mystery, set in a small down in France, where memories of the war are always just around the corner.

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

First in a series. On to the next.

[Bryngel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Engaging, well written and rather different. I liked it.

[John Nicholson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well worth the read. Looking forward to the next mystery!