Marseille by @AngelaWrenAuthr is a Shake Off Winter Doldrums pick #99cents #cosycrime #mystery #book
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    • Mar 23, 2021
    • 4 min read

Marseille by @AngelaWrenAuthr is a Shake Off Winter Doldrums pick #99cents #cosycrime #mystery #book



Title: Marseille (Jacques Forêt Mystery #4)


Author: Angela Wren


Genre: Cosy Crime


Book Blurb:


A spate of abductions and subsequent deaths in nearby départements have Investigator, Jacques Forêt, perplexed. Returning from extended leave to the news of a local kidnapping, Jacques is on the case immediately. And this time it’s personal.


But the case isn’t Jacques’ only worry. He has become more and more concerned about Beth, but what can he do if she doesn’t let him help her?

The investigation into the murders takes him and his trusted assistant, Didier Duclos, to Marseille. Can Jacques find the kidnappers and release their captive before another body is added to the list of unexplained murders?


It’s a race against time.


Excerpt:


“This might interest you,” said Maxim as he pointed out the relevant article hidden in the bottom right-hand quarter of the page. “It’s an update on one of the woodland killings that we’ve been following for a while.” Maxim handed over the journal. “It’s the weapon that is of most interest in this case.”


Jacques read the first couple of paragraphs under the heading ‘No Progress on Hunting Fatality’. His frown deepened as he read the line: ‘…the recovered bullet is now known to have been fired…’


He looked up.


“From a Derringer? An antique Derringer! How can they be sure about that?”


Maxim puffed his cheeks out as he exhaled. “It doesn’t say, but I doubt your excolleagues in the police would have released the information to the press if they weren’t certain.”


“Of course,” said Jacques. “So, despite the journalist’s nomenclature, it’s murder, then, and not a hunting accident. No one goes hunting with a Derringer.” He got up and moved across the room to a large display board. A map, with the département of Lozère at its centre and the surrounding départements of Cantal, Haute-Loire, Ardèche, Gard, and Aveyron, was displayed and spiked with a number of amber coloured pins spread, apparently randomly, across its expanse. He cast his eyes over the map and then fixed his attention on a single pin below the centre.


“Here,” he said. “This victim was found here on the Col de St-Pierre on the south side of the D260, which is just on the other side of the boundary with Gard.” He pulled out the pin and replaced it with a green one.


“He was fourteen years old,” said Maxim joining his boss at the board, a weighty file of papers in his hands. “Found by a garde-forestier. It’s managed woodland up there, and the body was about two days old when it was discovered.” Maxim consulted his notes. “He’d been missing for just over seventeen weeks.”


“And that was?”


“May this year when he was snatched, and the body was discovered at the end of the week before last.”


Jacques stepped back and scanned the map, trying to recall a detail. “Wasn’t there another case about eight or ten months ago with a similar M.O.?”


“Here,” said Maxim pointing to another pin, located in a forested area to the north-west in Cantal. “An old Mauser, the C96, was used. A boy again, aged twelve, shot in the back. He’d been missing for over three months, and his body was discovered about a month after he was shot.” Maxim paused as he thumbed through his notes.


Jacques’ eyes moved systematically across the board. He nodded. “That’s two. It’s not a pattern…yet. But it is a happenstance that I don’t like.” In his mind, there was no rhyme or reason to the arrangement of pins in front of him, but there were apparent connections. All the bodies had been found in woodland often used for hunting. The victims had been minors who had disappeared from either home or school without any trace. The newspapers had speculated widely and wildly on the reasons for the youngsters being in the locations where they were found. As far as Jacques was concerned, not one scrap of the speculative column space could be relied upon. But it couldn’t be ignored either. Somewhere, in all of those words, was a grain of truth. He would just have to find it.


Buy Links (including Goodreads and BookBub):


Grab an e-copy for 99 cents for a very limited time!


Amazon : AngelaWren





What’s your favorite activity to shake off the winter doldrums?


To get out in my car - a 1965 MGB - in the fabulous countryside around where I live in Yorkshire, UK. On a bright day, with the roof down and the gorgeous scenery of the Yorkshire Dales and Moors it's great to get a breath of clean fresh air and I always take a book and a picnic for lunch. At the moment, of course, this is just a dream!


Why is your featured book a cure for the winter blues?


The story is set in the city of Marseille, France. Readers can enjoy a virtual trip to a bustling and vibrant Mediterranean city as they help Jacques to solve the mystery.


Giveaway:


Enter to win a $50 Amazon (US) Gift Card

Enter to win a $50 Amazon (US) Gift Card

Enter to win a $25 Amazon (US) Gift Card

Enter to win a $15 Amazon (US) Gift Card

Enter to win a $10 Amazon (US) Gift Card



Open internationally


Runs March 1 – 31, 2021.


Drawing will be held on April 1, 2021.



Author Biography:


Angela Wren is an actor and director at a small theatre a few miles from where she lives in the county of Yorkshire in the UK. She worked as a project and business change manager – very pressured and very demanding – but she managed to escape, and now she writes books.


She has always loved stories and story-telling, so it seemed a natural progression, to her, to try her hand at writing, starting with short stories. Her first published story was in an anthology, which was put together by the magazine ‘Ireland’s Own’ in 2011. She also works with 8 other northern writers to create the series of Miss Moonshine anthologies. Most recently, Angela contributed a story set in the 19th century to the DARK LONDON collection.


Angela particularly enjoys the challenge of plotting and planning different genres of work. Her short stories vary between contemporary romance, memoir, mystery, and historical. She also writes comic flash-fiction and has drafted two one-act plays that have been recorded for local radio.


Her full-length novels are set in France, where she likes to spend as much time as possible each year.


Social Media Links:


Instagram : InstaAngelaWren

Contact an author : Angela Wren

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