All Pure Souls: An Aliette Nouvelle Mystery (Aliette Nouvelle #2)

There's a deadly August heatwave and Inspector Aliette Nouvelle is looking forward to her upcoming vacation. She's been working hard, without much reward. Denied promotion to the coveted Commissaire's post — which seemed practically guaranteed before the dubious Jacques Normand affair — she now finds herself working under the new acting Commissaire, Claude Neon, her former assistant. It's hard not to be bitter. When Claude presents Aliette with the report on the murder of a Marilyn Monroe look-alike who had been the star attraction at the upscale brothel known as Mari Morgan's, he assures her it's an open-and-shut case. The prime suspect is already sitting in a cell awaiting questioning and psychiatric evaluation. But Aliette's instincts tell her that this is not quite as simple as it appears. Claude doesn't always agree with Aliette's methods, but he has learned from first-hand experience to trust her instincts: she's still the best cop in la brigade. He reluctantly hands over the case and Aliette embarks on an unsettling journey, the strangely uncooperative putes ' clues leading her to a sisterly cult and the ancient goddess who rules it. In his heyday, Jacques Normand was France's Public Enemy Number One, a glamorous rogue who captured the imagination of the entire country. As he led the police on a merry chase, he also made the career of Commissaire Louis Moreau, former head of the Paris Anti-gangs unit...now the commander of a small Police Judiciare force in a sleepy border town. After escaping from prison, Normand fled Paris and has been neither seen nor heard from for more than ten years. And because the Normand file has lain dormant since before she joined the force, Inspector Aliette Nouvelle has naturally assumed that everyone's favourite outlaw is dead and the case closed. But one afternoon, Commissaire Moreau drops Normand's file on her desk. The Commissaire is convinced that Normand is still very much alive and in the vicinity. Find him, he commands Aliette. Bring him in. Put him away for good. Aliette Nouvelle is a new heroine for the 90ssmart, single and intuitive, but more interested in quietly and non-violently getting the job done than in receiving front-page coverage for her sometimes unorthodox methods of crime-solving. She knows she is regarded as a rising star in the force and believes that her years of hard work and her excellent record are about to bear fruit. She senses, rightly, that the soon-to-retire Commissaire has chosen to pass the torch on to her. And so, although she remains skeptical, Aliette accepts his challenge. She sets out to dig up a forgotten hero. Her only clues are those she finds in the outlaw's out-of-print memoir, and in the gloomy face on a faded WANTED poster. There's a deadly August heatwave and Inspector Aliette Nouvelle is looking forward to her upcoming vacation. She's been working hard, without much reward. Denied promotion to the coveted Commissaire's post 0́4 which seemed practically guaranteed before the dubious Jacques Normand affair 0́4 she now finds herself working under the new acting Commissaire, Claude Neon, her former assistant. It's hard not to be bitter. When Claude presents Aliette with the report on the murder of a Marilyn Monroe look-alike who had been the star attraction at the upscale brothel known as Mari Morgan's, he assures her it's an open-and-shut case. The prime suspect is already sitting in a cell awaiting questioning and psychiatric evaluation. But Aliette's instincts tell her that this is not quite as simple as it appears. Claude doesn't always agree with Aliette's methods, but he has learned from first-hand experience to trust her instincts: she's still the best cop in la brigade. He reluctantly hands over the case and Aliette embarks on an unsettling journey, the strangely uncooperative putes' clues leading her to a sisterly cult and the ancient goddess who rules it. Jacques Normand, France's Public Enemy Number One, escaped from prison over ten years ago. But the Commissaire is convinced that the outlaw is alive. Find him, he commands Inspector Aliette Nouvelle. Put him away for good. But is there more here than meets the eye? There's a deadly August heatwave and Inspector Aliette Nouvelle is looking forward to her upcoming vacation when she is drawn into investigating a murder at an upscale brothel Inspector Aliette Nouvelle returns to solve the case of the murder of a Marilyn Monroe look-alike in a French brothel.