The best Darac mystery thriller yet! Peter Morfoot's jazz- loving French detective will once again delight his readers. "A winning blend of great characters, fun location, taut plot and dirty politics" says Martin Walker of this new novel.

When a body is discovered at a stadium used by a college athletics squad, Darac cedes leadership of an ongoing case to investigate. Who is the victim? Why were they killed? Who could have performed such a brutal act? As the list of suspects grows and the earlier case continues to frustrate Darac's second-in command, Roland Granot, a mysterious sighting sets in train a series of events which threatens to strike at the very heart of Darac's world. The setting with its vibrant light, and the spectacular Alpes Maritime mountain range at its back, is Nice. And with that celebrated azure coastline at its feet, Nice is as beautiful as any Mediterranean resort. But it's also a multi-ethnic city of almost half a million souls. And are there serpents in this particular paradise? Ask Darac, Commissaire Agnes Dantier and the other officers of Nice's Brigade Criminelle.

A go-to destination for students of the finer things in life, the Villa des Pinales is set high in the foothills above Nice. As groups check-in for three-day courses on wine tasting, perfume making and landscape painting, they are joined by their tutors, one of whom proves to be forensic sketch artist Astrid Pireque. Down in the city, the remaining members of Darac's team are experiencing a lull in new cases they know won't last. But none is prepared for what lay ahead. The Essence of Murder, the latest thriller in the Captain Darac series sees Peter Morfoot's writing skills at their very best.

Captain Paul Darac of the Brigade Criminelle arrives at a crime scene to find a woman's mutilated corpse. Initially routine, the case deepens and darkens into a complex enquiry that threatens to close in on Darac himself. But allegiances past and present must be set aside to unravel a tale of greed, deception and treachery that spans the social spectrum. It is among the winding streets of his own neighbourhood in Nice's old town, the Babazouk, that Darac faces his severest test yet.

In the heat of a French summer, Captain Paul Darac of the Nice Brigade Criminelle is called to a highly sensitive crime scene.A man has been murdered in the midst of a prayer group, but no one saw how it was done. And the more Darac and his team learn about the victim, the longer their list of suspects grows.Darac's hunt for the murderer will uncover a desire for revenge years in the making, and put the life of one of his own at risk...

"[A] breezy, entertaining crime novel... an auspicious debut" Publishers Weekly on Impure BloodIt is carnival time in Nice, and for three weeks the boulevards are alive with dancers, jugglers and musicians. Amid the colour and pageantry, a man suffers a fatal fall - the first in a series of suspicious deaths.Captain Paul Darac of the Brigade Criminelle is sure the answer lies in the mystery surrounding a daring bank heist, supposedly resolved years ago. But the reopening of the case awakens powerful enemies, and soon the safety of his friends, his colleagues and his family is at stake.