"I'd like you to find the person who killed my son."
The tone is set with Charlotte Perle’s first words to Magali Rousseau. No ordinary request, this – it’s one that calls for empathy, tenacity, thoroughness. Qualities which Magali has in abundance.
One Green Bottle, Cash in Carry, Perfume Island, Mystery Manor - the four novels in the series highlight Magali and Charlotte in four different investigations, spread over two years. From the hunt for a serial killer to a devastating journey into horror, these books form an unforgettable exploration of darkness. But one in which, with a friendship like theirs, there is always a place for laughter, always the possibility of light.
Troubled by too much darkness, at the end of Mystery Manor, Magali retired. But she stayed in the background, guiding Sophie Kiesser, her daughter-in-law, in her new career as a Private Investigator. And a new series began.
When Sophie takes over from Magali as the solver of mysteries, she has little idea of what she has let herself in for.
Naïve, inexperienced, but full of enthusiasm, she snoops and probes, coaxes and consoles, till little by little, reluctantly, the truth emerges from its hiding place.
Is the helped or hindered by her family? A madcap, extravagant aunt and a maddening, crusading sister are not, perhaps, the most effective partners she could have. Nor is the hopeless, hapless, confused and conflicted gendarme who dogs her progress with worrying persistence. Luckily she has Luc, her doting husband, and Magali, her ever supportive mother-in-law, to help her navigate the turbulent waters not just of detective work but of motherhood.
Set in Provence, each of these four novels takes you into the quirks and secrets of its culture, from the mystery of truffles to the craftsmanship of the Nativity figurines known as santons.
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