Dirty War

There is an echo of Chandler’s gallant, world-weary Philip Marlowe in grumpy former police commissioner Lola Jost. There is a salute to Agatha Christie in the way the prime suspect is finally confronted and shamed by a chain of evidence pointing to their unequivocal guilt. There is also a strong flavour of Simenon in the way she evokes Paris through the inviting fug of its glowing cafes, after-hours clubs and shady denizens with guilty secrets they are reluctant to share. - Sunday Herald

Dominique Sylvain worked as a journalist in Paris before relocating to Asia where she lived for spells in Japan and Singapore. She is the author of thirteen crime novels and now lives once more in Tokyo where she writes full-time.