Wednesday, December 08, 2021

The Hanged Man's Tale by Gerald Jay

 
First Line: He told close friends about his plans.
 
Fresh from his success in the south of France, Inspector Paul Mazarelle now heads his own team for the elite Brigade Criminelle in Paris. When a dead man is found hanging inside the tunnel of a canal on the Seine, a man is quickly found and charged with the murder. Mazarelle knows the man is innocent and insists on continuing his investigation.
 
His investigation leads him into the arms of a beautiful journalist... and into the world of white supremacists who want to throw all immigrants out of France as well as that of corrupt cops who think nothing of accepting bribes to cover up crimes. As the body count rises, Mazarelle finds himself a prime suspect and banned from the case. Now dependent on his team to keep searching for the truth officially, he also has a few tricks up his sleeve to find the killer unofficially.

~

Although I found myself more easily distracted while reading this second Mazarelle mystery than I was for the first (The Paris Directive), I still enjoyed it. Sometimes living in a country as big as the United States can give people a false sense of importance-- almost as if the rest of the world doesn't matter. Do you think the United States is the only country with right-wing extremists who hate immigrants? Think again. The Hanged Man's Tale, which takes place shortly after 9/11, makes it very clear that right-wing extremists and the plight of immigrants are problems around the world. 
 
The two major "ingredients" of Mazarelle's team are Maurice Kalou, a Black man who is no stranger to bigotry and who has learned that doing everything by the book is the safest way to proceed, and young Jean Villepin, who's not only impulsive, but he also worships Mazarelle as only a young man who feels he's ten feet tall and bullet-proof can. Pit Mazarelle and these two against the crooked cops and right-wing extremists, and readers are treated to an often volatile mix. 

Their investigation leads readers into the plight of the Roma (formerly known as gypsies) as well as into a camp for immigrants. Readers learn about ripoux (crooked cops) and les boeuf-carottes (what Americans refer to as Internal Affairs), and the fabled French Foreign Legion has a role in the proceedings, too.

As I said previously, I did find myself more easily distracted from the story in The Hanged Man's Tale, but the characters and the investigation are good, in particular the wily Mazarelle. I certainly wouldn't mind visiting him in Paris again. À bientôt, Paul!

The Hanged Man's Tale by Gerald Jay
eISBN: 9780385537551
Doubleday © 2021
eBook, 320 pages
 
Police Procedural, #2 Inspector Mazarelle mystery
Rating: B+
Source: Net Galley

8 comments:

  1. You had me at the Paris setting, Cathy. And it sounds as though this is an authentic look at the city, too, as opposed to some romanticized version of what it's like. I like the sound of the characters, too. And you're right; right-wing extremists are everywhere, and it's really short-sighted to believe that it's only happening in the US.

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    1. Yes, I liked the more realistic look at Paris.

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  2. I think I've already mentioned it somewhere, but I absolutely love the cover of this one. That alone is enough to grab my interest...but it sounds even better now that I've read your review.

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    1. Yes, there's definitely more to it than the cover, Sam.

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  3. Oh, good. I learned about this series from your earlier post, and this heightened my interest.

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  4. The Paris background, the detectives I am interested.

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