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Louis Morgon #1
Le Crime
First published as A French
Country Murder
A retired spy wakes up in his French country home and finds a dead black man on his doorstep. His friend and neighbor, a French cop,
trys to help. Peter Morgon, follows the leads and finds that the crime goes back to his mentor in DC who has framed him for a crime for revenge and to further his career/
Country Murder
A retired spy wakes up in his French country home and finds a dead black man on his doorstep. His friend and neighbor, a French cop,
trys to help. Peter Morgon, follows the leads and finds that the crime goes back to his mentor in DC who has framed him for a crime for revenge and to further his career/
246 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2003
73 people are currently reading
182 people want to read
About the author
Peter Steiner
11 books38 followersPETER STEINER is the author of five books in the Louis Morgon series, A French Country Murder (Le Crime), L'Assassin, The Terrorist, The Resistance, and The Capitalist.
A new novel The Good Cop will come out September 1, 2019. This book takes place in Weimar Germany in the 1920's and early thirties.
A New Yorker cartoonist, Steiner lives in Connecticut and spends part of each year in France, in a village not unlike the one featured in the Morgon novels. You can see more at plsteiner.com. and see his most recent cartoons exclusively at plsteiner.com/blog.
A new novel The Good Cop will come out September 1, 2019. This book takes place in Weimar Germany in the 1920's and early thirties.
A New Yorker cartoonist, Steiner lives in Connecticut and spends part of each year in France, in a village not unlike the one featured in the Morgon novels. You can see more at plsteiner.com. and see his most recent cartoons exclusively at plsteiner.com/blog.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 68 reviews
August 21, 2011
This is a book in search of an identity.
The cover art would indicate this is a cosy Peter Mayle type book. The reviews on the back of the book indicate that it is a political thriller. Further research reveals that in later printings they change the title from A French Country Murder to Le Crime. Ahhh well I would much rather read a book called Le Crime. The lurid blue cover gives the book more of a feel of a political noir book. The reason for the confusion by the publishers is frankly the book is confused. I'm not sure what type of book Peter Steiner set out to write, but it has the feel of maybe he was working on three different books suddenly found himself with a pubishing contract and decided to mesh the books together.
We have the French country murder book which actually the body in question was murdered at Charles De Gualle airport in Paris not in the French countryside. We are introduced to a country detective and get a very brief sketch of our main character Louis Morgon.
Book two is a travel memoir of the French countryside. I'm thinking that Peter Steiner spent some time in his youth back packing across France and had some fond memories of that time so he couldn't help, but add that to the plot of this novel. He has this scene with a gypsy guy that had weird overtones of Jean Genet. He danced with the heavyset innkeeper's wife and felt strangely aroused. Every thought or scene seems unfinished.
Book three of this slim 242 page volume is a political thriller where out of the blue, after twenty years the Secretary of State of the United States decides to get even with Louis for a preceived slight. The ending of this bizarre plot is not only unsatisfying, but hardly believable.
Steiner throws in a crippled gorgeous French girlfriend with fused bones in her back, a bit of Jim Thompson at work here. She is married to a "pyramid" of a man and finds our man Louis totally unresistable.
At the end of the book Louis's daughter visits him in France even though she has been suffering from abandonment issues which frankly may have been a gift because I don't see Louis even attempting to be father of the year. The daughter throws a tantrum at the end of the book and refuses to go to the music festival with her father to meet his friends because it reminds her too much of the reasons that he left her in the first place. Again a totally unsatifactory scene that felt unfinished and I found myself wondering why put this scene in if really it serves no purpose.
If this review seems convoluted it really isn't my fault. This is the way the book reads. It was a struggle getting through the last 46 pages, but I was still hopeful that Steiner would pull the rabbit out of the hat. I liked parts of it, but they were so buried under the mishmash of the books identity crisis that I really don't see myself giving Steiner another chance in the follow up book L'Assassin.
The cover art would indicate this is a cosy Peter Mayle type book. The reviews on the back of the book indicate that it is a political thriller. Further research reveals that in later printings they change the title from A French Country Murder to Le Crime. Ahhh well I would much rather read a book called Le Crime. The lurid blue cover gives the book more of a feel of a political noir book. The reason for the confusion by the publishers is frankly the book is confused. I'm not sure what type of book Peter Steiner set out to write, but it has the feel of maybe he was working on three different books suddenly found himself with a pubishing contract and decided to mesh the books together.
We have the French country murder book which actually the body in question was murdered at Charles De Gualle airport in Paris not in the French countryside. We are introduced to a country detective and get a very brief sketch of our main character Louis Morgon.
Book two is a travel memoir of the French countryside. I'm thinking that Peter Steiner spent some time in his youth back packing across France and had some fond memories of that time so he couldn't help, but add that to the plot of this novel. He has this scene with a gypsy guy that had weird overtones of Jean Genet. He danced with the heavyset innkeeper's wife and felt strangely aroused. Every thought or scene seems unfinished.
Book three of this slim 242 page volume is a political thriller where out of the blue, after twenty years the Secretary of State of the United States decides to get even with Louis for a preceived slight. The ending of this bizarre plot is not only unsatisfying, but hardly believable.
Steiner throws in a crippled gorgeous French girlfriend with fused bones in her back, a bit of Jim Thompson at work here. She is married to a "pyramid" of a man and finds our man Louis totally unresistable.
At the end of the book Louis's daughter visits him in France even though she has been suffering from abandonment issues which frankly may have been a gift because I don't see Louis even attempting to be father of the year. The daughter throws a tantrum at the end of the book and refuses to go to the music festival with her father to meet his friends because it reminds her too much of the reasons that he left her in the first place. Again a totally unsatifactory scene that felt unfinished and I found myself wondering why put this scene in if really it serves no purpose.
If this review seems convoluted it really isn't my fault. This is the way the book reads. It was a struggle getting through the last 46 pages, but I was still hopeful that Steiner would pull the rabbit out of the hat. I liked parts of it, but they were so buried under the mishmash of the books identity crisis that I really don't see myself giving Steiner another chance in the follow up book L'Assassin.
April 28, 2022
I liked a few descriptions of life in France and French people, though Martin Walker does them much better. The American end of the plot, in which the protagonist, whose name I have already forgotten, works in the State Department and the CIA, is synthetic and entirely unconvincing. The characters are thin, their behaviour largely inexplicable, and the plot regrettable. One feels that the closest Peter Steiner has come to the sinister wheels of government, on his way to working as a cartoonist at The New Yorker, was in reading other novels of dubious quality.
January 23, 2018
Peter Steiner's 'A French Country Murder' is a little gem of a book: concise, well-written, full of interesting characters, and carefully plotted. It's the first in a series starring Louis Morgon, a 'retired' ex-CIA/State Department guy who opted to move to rural France when his career went down the drain. Although I read the 2nd in the group first, I'm glad I returned to this one- it really filled in the blanks.
Morgon's an interesting character. He was once a high-flier in government affairs, but he got himself on the wrong side of the wrong guy and not only left the service, but also walked away from his family and country by picking up and moving overseas. He lives a quiet, somewhat idyllic life, painting, puttering around the garden, cooking, and having an affair with his neighbor. He's no Jason Bourne- he's in his mid 60s, in decent shape, but generally considered to be an old man.
The plot is an odd one. A dead body is dumped on his front porch one night. The local police make no progress in its investigation, but it's clear to Morgon that it's a message from his nemesis, Hugh Bowes, a man who had risen to the position of the US Secretary of State. Louis performs his own investigation and ends up sending his own special message back to his powerful enemy. The cat and mouse game begins in earnest with the end result being, in Morgon's opinion, his own death. Along with his friend, the local gendarme, as well as his friend's son, he develops a plan to trap his killers. It's a very different take on the spy game. The conclusion works for Morgon but leaves an opening that sets up a subsequent thriller in the series.
Steiner is a wonderful writer. His descriptions of the countryside and characters are masterful and the dialogue is a real strength. I've read that he has a background as a painter, which makes sense- you can almost sense he's painting a picture as he describes the small town and its inhabitants. The most valuable section to me was the several dozen pages, out of only a couple hundred, devoted to Morgon's back-story. The character development for all the major players was excellent.
I also get a sense that he doesn't have a real strong knowledge of the espionage world, which may be a good thing in that he avoided long passages describing spy craft. He put what he needed to out there but didn't embellish it with a lot of stuff we didn't need to know. It made for a very focused story that flowed beautifully. My only argument with the book is with the convoluted, symbolic 'messages' sent back and forth between Morgon and his antagonist. Otherwise, this is a very enjoyable beginning for a nice series.
Morgon's an interesting character. He was once a high-flier in government affairs, but he got himself on the wrong side of the wrong guy and not only left the service, but also walked away from his family and country by picking up and moving overseas. He lives a quiet, somewhat idyllic life, painting, puttering around the garden, cooking, and having an affair with his neighbor. He's no Jason Bourne- he's in his mid 60s, in decent shape, but generally considered to be an old man.
The plot is an odd one. A dead body is dumped on his front porch one night. The local police make no progress in its investigation, but it's clear to Morgon that it's a message from his nemesis, Hugh Bowes, a man who had risen to the position of the US Secretary of State. Louis performs his own investigation and ends up sending his own special message back to his powerful enemy. The cat and mouse game begins in earnest with the end result being, in Morgon's opinion, his own death. Along with his friend, the local gendarme, as well as his friend's son, he develops a plan to trap his killers. It's a very different take on the spy game. The conclusion works for Morgon but leaves an opening that sets up a subsequent thriller in the series.
Steiner is a wonderful writer. His descriptions of the countryside and characters are masterful and the dialogue is a real strength. I've read that he has a background as a painter, which makes sense- you can almost sense he's painting a picture as he describes the small town and its inhabitants. The most valuable section to me was the several dozen pages, out of only a couple hundred, devoted to Morgon's back-story. The character development for all the major players was excellent.
I also get a sense that he doesn't have a real strong knowledge of the espionage world, which may be a good thing in that he avoided long passages describing spy craft. He put what he needed to out there but didn't embellish it with a lot of stuff we didn't need to know. It made for a very focused story that flowed beautifully. My only argument with the book is with the convoluted, symbolic 'messages' sent back and forth between Morgon and his antagonist. Otherwise, this is a very enjoyable beginning for a nice series.
December 23, 2016
This book (supposedly) fits two genres: French countryside mystery and political thriller. I like both and am generally not picky about either. But this book is so incredibly bad that I barely made it a third of the way through.
It's dull, depressing, and fails to present either a compelling mystery or a sense of urgent purpose for the protagonist in any way that might make the bleak, boring prose acceptable.
The plot drags horribly. The characters are uninteresting and unlikeable. There are long digressions that have no meaning and descriptive segments that fail to evoke a sense of atmosphere. And the writing is atrociously bad. I see Steiner going for a Hemingway-like style (short, succinct sentences and simple to-the-point language). He fails miserably at this.
There are hundreds of good books out there that nicely represent the genres Steiner tried and failed to delve into here. Don't waste your time with this one.
It's dull, depressing, and fails to present either a compelling mystery or a sense of urgent purpose for the protagonist in any way that might make the bleak, boring prose acceptable.
The plot drags horribly. The characters are uninteresting and unlikeable. There are long digressions that have no meaning and descriptive segments that fail to evoke a sense of atmosphere. And the writing is atrociously bad. I see Steiner going for a Hemingway-like style (short, succinct sentences and simple to-the-point language). He fails miserably at this.
There are hundreds of good books out there that nicely represent the genres Steiner tried and failed to delve into here. Don't waste your time with this one.
August 26, 2025
A French Country Murder lays down the history of ex-CIA operative,Louis Morgon. He retired to a tiny French village, took up painting and blended into the community until a man ends up with a slit throat on Louis' doorstep dead. What ensues is such clever writing that kept me reading til 1AM. This story made me reflect on how fleeting our time is and what value we can impart while passing through. Louis is a man with many, many regrets and losses. His career got upended, he never quite connected with his little children and his marriage flayed. Dirty secrets made it too difficult to live in any authentic manner. His escape to France permitted a bit of normalcy til Louis' CIA past roared back. Back with a vengeance and a knowing that it would not end until Louis is finished off permanently. Counting on wits and CIA ways,Louis pieces together the message sent by the unknown dead man and heads to the bottom of the murder.
February 8, 2012
This is Peter Steiner's first novel, but I'm really hoping it is the first of many. His main character in this one --Louis Morgon, who I hope to see a lot more of in future--is a retired CIA man, now artist, living a happy peaceful life in a small village in rural France, when a case from the past arrives on his front door. Combining political intrigue, philosophical musings, and psychological insights, I found this book one of the most compelling and fascinating I've read for a long time. Cover blurbs compare this book to The Spy Who Came in from the Cold and A Year in Provence, and the author to Agatha Christie, Robert Ludlum, Graham Greene, and Alan Furst. I could've done with less picturesque countryside description (with reference to A Year in Provence comparison) and none of the other comparisons are wrong, either -- for me, Graham Greene and John Le Carre are the closest. Definitely an author to watch, and to read with pleasure.
April 10, 2010
I read this book AFTER i read it's sequel, which might or might not have been a good idea. This is a first novel by a painter/New Yorker cartoonist and it's not as good as its follow-up, L'Assassin. But it has some very good moments, and the characters are all interesting. Best of all is the descriptions, some of which catch your ear like a good painting catches your eye. Steiner writes like a painter, and that's a compliment.
December 7, 2012
Also called "The Crime" this is the first novel about Louis Morgan and his self-imposed exile in a small French village after a career in the CIA. Someone is trying to implicate Louis in a political murder and the crime involves Louis' past as well as his future. A great series guaranteed to make you want to keep reading.
January 6, 2011
I loved this book! So well written it is a work of literature as well as a darn good yarn. Beautifully draw descriptions of character and countryside.
April 25, 2024
I don't really know what to make of this book. I was expecting a quaint whodunnit set in a small, picturesque french town.
There was in fact a muder. However, there was none of the suspense and tension we usually expect as the hero investigates and clues are slowly revealed , and the plot twists and turns.
Instead, all we get are basically the main character's suspicion of who the murderer is, but the motive seems tenuous and not well explained. There is no surprise plot twist, as essentially no clues are revealed. We just follow Louis Morgon to the foregone conclusion of his suspicions, and thus, an anticlimax.
It seems that in the first volume of this Morgon series, the author wanted us to get to know Louis Morgon, through much introspection and retrospection. Although we do get to know him, and a few other characters, the murder mystery itself falls quite flat in my opinion.
There was in fact a muder. However, there was none of the suspense and tension we usually expect as the hero investigates and clues are slowly revealed , and the plot twists and turns.
Instead, all we get are basically the main character's suspicion of who the murderer is, but the motive seems tenuous and not well explained. There is no surprise plot twist, as essentially no clues are revealed. We just follow Louis Morgon to the foregone conclusion of his suspicions, and thus, an anticlimax.
It seems that in the first volume of this Morgon series, the author wanted us to get to know Louis Morgon, through much introspection and retrospection. Although we do get to know him, and a few other characters, the murder mystery itself falls quite flat in my opinion.
August 2, 2019
Morgon is living in France after a failed career in the US State Department. When his career failed - and as a surprise to him - he abandoned his family and that career to move away from what he called "the sordid world." Now it seems to have come back to him, several years later, when a dead body shows up on his doorstep. As he reflects back on how his career went wrong, he starts piecing together ways in which the facts point towards a particular nemesis. Once he's figured out who might be to blame, he has to figure out how to stop that person.
More complex than the typical thriller, and also has some interesting sidebars on, say, accordion music.
The occasionally changing point of view is distracting, but I still appreciate Morgon as an interesting character.
More complex than the typical thriller, and also has some interesting sidebars on, say, accordion music.
The occasionally changing point of view is distracting, but I still appreciate Morgon as an interesting character.
December 31, 2016
First in the series which I read out of order and so this was even more fun to read because of all the beginnings. The whole thing hinges on a man so power-hungry and so vindictive at being what he sees as humiliated, that pure evil oozes out of pores while influence-winning charm snakes out of his mouth. The calm and the down-to-earth Louis is someone I'd love to have lunch with, and his clear facing the life he has stripped down and finds just a little lonely but not full of regrets is so encouraging. Want to re-read the whole series in order now!
May 29, 2021
A multi-layered, sophisticated mystery enhanced with deft philosophical and psychological overtones.
Much pleasure comes from the plot complexity equal to a championship game of chess and the deviousness of some of the characters. While tension pervades in this subtle thriller, descriptions of rural France and a walking pilgrimage across France are painted poetically.
Much pleasure comes from the plot complexity equal to a championship game of chess and the deviousness of some of the characters. While tension pervades in this subtle thriller, descriptions of rural France and a walking pilgrimage across France are painted poetically.
September 3, 2023
Loved it. Going to find the rest of the novels in the series and read them all. The plot is explained in other reviews and the synopsis. What did it for me is that the protagonist, Louis Morgon, outthought, outplayed, outplanned and outwitted, his adversary. No James Bond gimmicks, no weapons, and no "late plot" twists. If you enjoy espionage and erudite thinkers this is for you.
November 3, 2025
A very different spy novel.
The plot and story line were very interesting but the treatment of the characters was excellent. It brought out the wants and desires of a man was never comfortable with his life, his environment. And his acknowledgement that life, the past cannot be recaptured.
The plot and story line were very interesting but the treatment of the characters was excellent. It brought out the wants and desires of a man was never comfortable with his life, his environment. And his acknowledgement that life, the past cannot be recaptured.
December 30, 2016
Louis Morgon is a failed state department analyst, failed husband, and failed father who moves to a village in France. One night a body is dumped in front of his house. And that is the last thing that happens in the book until a little flurry of action at the end. A thriller - not!
October 28, 2019
Very enjoyable novel, which was more philosophical than crime. The characters were as brilliant as the colorful French countryside that the novel is set in. Looking forward to reading the rest of the Louis Morgon series.
February 16, 2022
A thriller this book is not. More like a meandering chronicle of unanchored details. The “resolution” only left me with questions. The main question of course: when will I learn not every book deserves to be finished?
June 12, 2023
A literate thriller, set in rural France (and Wa D.C.). As much about love, marriage, parenting, ambition, control mania, and American solipsism as it is about espionage and murder. Makes the most of the settings.
April 8, 2024
I found the plot implausible, the characterisation weak and the descriptions of France like a guidebook.
It felt like this had been written for children such was its lack of subtlety or nuance, with every detail over-told.
It is difficult to imagine something less like John Le Carre.
It felt like this had been written for children such was its lack of subtlety or nuance, with every detail over-told.
It is difficult to imagine something less like John Le Carre.
December 27, 2025
Well written, a little dated, but the oddest ending. Not sure author likes women as the daughter, mistress, and flirt get pretty short shrift. Maybe he hated the book by the end and just took it out on the female supporting cast. Odd for a, up until then, well paced intrigue and mystery novel.
May 26, 2017
A wonderful find!
A fun and literate mystery/ thriller. wonderful character development. while less deep than LeCarre, it stills satisfies! we read it while visiting Paris
A fun and literate mystery/ thriller. wonderful character development. while less deep than LeCarre, it stills satisfies! we read it while visiting Paris
July 21, 2017
To call it a thriller is an overkill
Not really gripping and the story lacked depth. But it did describe France beautifully. Maybe the next book in the series might be better.
Not really gripping and the story lacked depth. But it did describe France beautifully. Maybe the next book in the series might be better.
August 6, 2017
Looking forward to reading more in this series
March 4, 2018
Hated it, after the first five chapters, I stopped reading, which I never do. Found this too painful to try to finish.
January 10, 2021
Good international fun.
With a couple unlikely murders and an even less likely hero. Plus a lot of bloviating. The musette episodes were sad and endearing. I will read the next one.
With a couple unlikely murders and an even less likely hero. Plus a lot of bloviating. The musette episodes were sad and endearing. I will read the next one.
August 4, 2024
More a 3.5
March 6, 2014
This book reminds me of a "Made for Television" movie which could air (without the commercials) for 60 minutes or so. Quickly, the main character, Louis Morgon loses his job in the CIA over trumped up smear tactics, leaves his wife and two children in the U.S., and moves to a small town in France. There he becomes enamored with a married neighbor (who is afflicted with a noticeable spinal condition-which the author describes on multiple occasions)and starts to enjoy the distinct French life. His separation from his old CIA life is short-lived when someone drops a corpse off on his driveway. He quickly determines that his old boss(Hugh Bowes-now the Secretary of State) is somehow responsible for the murder and travels back to the U.S. to investigate. Once back in the states, he receives a chilled reception from his ex-wife and two children he left behind but he returns to France convinced that Bowes had his own wife and lover (the corpse) murdered and he was next (he thinks Bowes is after him because years before Morgon caught him naked with his wife and humiliated him). As it turns out, Bowes does try to have him killed in Paris, however, with the assistance of his new French friends, Morgon manages to thwart his attempts forcing Bowes to resign as Secretary of State. Morgon's daughter visits him in France for a week but can't forgive him over the "abandonment" issue. His French lover consoles him by stating that he shouldn't feel bad since "Loving someone unforgivable . . .is love" Steiner provides some decent descriptions of the French landscape and cultural beliefs. The plot and ensuing action is simply not very interesting and lacks coherence.
July 23, 2014
This work did not come off to me as a murder mystery at all, or a novel of any great political intrigue, but as a story of personal growth and redemption (or at least resolution). Two men, each in their own way, commit unforgivable acts and deal with them, again, each in their own way.
As to our hero, the protagonist Louis Morgon, hiding away in the French countryside from his various failures in the sordid world "He had become a stranger in his own life, unconnected to anyone or anything except in a tentative way, by their expectations of him, by his sense of his obligations and his duties, but not by his heart. These tentative connections seemed the truest thing about him". His life has already taken him where it is taking him, or so he believes.
Our antagonist, Hugh Bowes has chosen for himself a life of public service and devotion to the greater good. He believes in this greater good, and more importantly in his own capacity and superior ability to discern and serve it. His ego allows him a degree of self-deception, as it were, of which Louis Morgon is incapable.
Steiner's description of place is wonderful, his story-telling a little uneven, and his effort here entirely worth reading. Enjoy!
As to our hero, the protagonist Louis Morgon, hiding away in the French countryside from his various failures in the sordid world "He had become a stranger in his own life, unconnected to anyone or anything except in a tentative way, by their expectations of him, by his sense of his obligations and his duties, but not by his heart. These tentative connections seemed the truest thing about him". His life has already taken him where it is taking him, or so he believes.
Our antagonist, Hugh Bowes has chosen for himself a life of public service and devotion to the greater good. He believes in this greater good, and more importantly in his own capacity and superior ability to discern and serve it. His ego allows him a degree of self-deception, as it were, of which Louis Morgon is incapable.
Steiner's description of place is wonderful, his story-telling a little uneven, and his effort here entirely worth reading. Enjoy!
December 21, 2016
A French Country Murder (Louis Morgon #1) by Peter Steiner is set in the contemporary French countryside. Louis retired from a checkered career in espionage, fleeing his Washington D.C. life (including his family) to live in peaceful wine country in France. But his past in "the sordid world" catches up with him when a dead body is deposited on his doorstep. The French police couldn't possibly solve the case, not knowing the players and Morgon's background. When it puts his beloved neighbor in danger, Morgon returns to the US to demand answers and resolution.
Events and characters in Morgon's past were unpleasant, and do not entice me to continue the series. But the delightful descriptions of French countryside encourage a vacation there. The author includes a travelogue/vacation guide at the end of the book (a novelty in a mystery book!).
Events and characters in Morgon's past were unpleasant, and do not entice me to continue the series. But the delightful descriptions of French countryside encourage a vacation there. The author includes a travelogue/vacation guide at the end of the book (a novelty in a mystery book!).
Displaying 1 - 30 of 68 reviews