Le Crime (Louis Morgon Series #1) Book

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.