Confession

Daniel Jacquot #5

by Martin O'Brien

Chief Inspector Daniel Jacquot has been enjoying the quiet life in a peaceful Provencal village. A former rugby international, who once scored the winning try against England at Twickenham, Jacquot sports a trademark ponytail and loves food, wine -- and one woman, artist Claudine. Now, however, he must leave her to go to Paris, where Marseilles Magistrate, Solange Bonnefoy's niece has been abducted. As the trail of violence and corruption leads Jacquot back to the ancient seaport, with its bloody history of slave trafficking, another utterly shocking and unexpected murder sets the investigation galloping in a wholly new direction and Jacquot has to go undercover.

Genres: Crime, Mystery Thriller

Hardcover

First published January 1, 2009

About the author

After graduating from Hertford College, Oxford, Martin O’Brien was Travel Editor at British Vogue for a number of years, and as a travel and life-style correspondent he has contributed to a wide range of international publications. As well as writing the Daniel Jacquot detective series ("Rich, spicy, and served up with unmistakeable relish" - The Literary Review), he has also written straight-to-paperback thrillers under the names Louka Grigoriou and Jack Drummond ("Big, high-pitched disaster novels don't come much more thrilling than this" - The Daily Mirror). Martin's books have been translated into Russian, Turkish, French, Dutch, Spanish, Portuguese, German, and Hebrew. He lives in the Cotswolds with his wife and two daughters.

Reviews

[Kathy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't know how many stars to indicate on this one, a book I had to set aside repeatedly as I searched for more pleasant reading and/or video viewing. Then I came back to it to check it off.
It is most unpleasant reading for a good percentage of the book due to the subject of trafficked young women being drugged and kidnapped and grievously used.
Jacquot goes dark to have more freedom in investigating and finding those behind this despicable crime. He does this for his judge pal whose niece had been kidnapped, so the pursuit is justified. I just can't handle reading the graphic details. Skimmed over large sections until the end to make sure he came out of it in one piece (more or less).
Settled on 3 stars just because it is Jacquot and his commitment to get the job done however unseemly.
Borrowed from friend

[Elizabeth · Rating 3 out of 5]

This fifth book is the series is filled with a great deal of graphic violence absent from the first four. It also has a theme of women in peril.

[Tom · Rating 4 out of 5]

Took me a while to warm to this one, a bit darker and more visceral and violent read than the previous ones.

The supernatural emelments like in The Angel to me add a little but do take me out of it. Not my cup of tea, but it made for a good read.

My butt puckers thinking of the shiny phallus, poor Alain!!! Very creative scene haha.

[Marianne Fanning · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it!!!!

[Carolyn White · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good plot with lots of twists and turns

[Monica · Rating 3 out of 5]

Jacquot is called back to Marseille to take on a personal undercover assignment for his old friend the magistrate Solange Bonnefoy. Bonnefoy's teenage niece, daughter of a wealthy Paris family, has gone missing without a trace - no ransom demand, no clues at all.

There are two sets of criminals in this tale - the traffickers who have kidnapped the girl (and several others) and the Cabrille crime family headed by the elderly Achille, whose ruthlessly ambitious daughter Virginie, a sexual sadist, makes the two hit women from Prizzi's Honor look like pussycats. Jacquot's old rival, the crooked cop Gastal, is sticking his nose in everywhere, looking for a chance to stick it to Jacquot and feather his own nest. Marie-Ange Buhl, the psychic who helped Jacquot in the past is back to help again.

It's kind of a busy plot, with more action and more graphic violence than is typical in the series. And not so much of the wonderfully descriptive writing that creates the strong sense of place in the other books. The shoot out as sea is kind of fun though.

[Elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoy the occasional thriller. This was a good one. The amount of eating in it amused me. You know how in historical fiction scenes stop while the clothes are lovingly described - heck I do it too - well in this one, everything stops for food. The Marseilles dining out culture is explored in some detail with loving descriptions of the grub - not a complaint, but an observation. I would have enjoyed this more if it hadn't contained a very gratuitous torture scene, but nevertheless, a very readable novel and I will read more by this currently new to me author.

[Louise Higgins · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another fantastic read...

[Michel Dignand · Rating 2 out of 5]

Far too 'bitty' a page and a half and the scene and character changes, then again two pages on, and again a page after that. Far too bitty for me.