‘Pascal Passion' by Andrea Frazer

Published by Accent Press,
September 2014.
ISBN 978-1-78375-158-7

In some ways this is a very traditional detective story with a village setting.  The quirky style of Andrea Frazer adds the bonus of humour with a rather post modern approach enabling the author to comment on the activities of her characters. 

This is the fourth in a series about detective Inspector Harry Falconer and Detective Sergeant Davy Carmichael whose relationship provides much opportunity for humour; Falconer can be sarcastic towards his cheerful but hapless colleague.  The two men are nicely contrasted physically, mentally and emotionally and both can be accident prone.  The old fashioned nature of the tale is accentuated by the murder which occasions the investigation being in a small village school with only two classes - infants and juniors.

The characters are very much part of the modern world however.  The handling of a large number of villagers and visitors is skilfully done by the author and the police investigation is thoroughly dealt with as Falconer inches his way to a solution.
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Reviewer: Jennifer S. Palmer
This series began with Death of an Old Git and now numbers some dozen volumes and also short stories.  Indeed there is a bonus short story at the end of Pascal Passion.

 Andrea Frazer is married, with four grown-up children, and lives in the Dordogne with her husband Tony and their seven cats. She has wanted to write since she first began to read at the age of five, but has been a little busy raising a family and working as a lecturer in Greek (she has a Fellowship Diploma in Greek), and teaching music. Apart from writing, Andrea continues to teach music, and now also teaches French to ex-pats.
Her interests include playing several instruments (but not all at the same time!), reading, and choral singing (she sings with two choirs in a nearby town). In her spare time, she breathes!

 
 

Jennifer Palmer Throughout my reading life crime fiction has been a constant interest; I really enjoyed my 15 years as an expatriate in the Far East, the Netherlands & the USA but occasionally the solace of closing my door to the outside world and sitting reading was highly therapeutic. I now lecture to adults on historical topics including Famous Historical Mysteries.