For the first time in years, Pel and his team are looking forward to being off-duty for the Christmas season, having closed the last of their cases – even if the nun had them baffled for a while - when news breaks of a planned armed robbery.

After scrupulous preparation, the police go into action, hoping arrests will be made without a single shot being fired. But the operation does not go to plan and when Chief holds Pel responsible, Pel suspects there’s worse to come…

Moody, sharp-tongued and worrying constantly about his health, Inspector Pel ensures that no case goes unsolved, in these mordantly witty French mysteries.

‘Pel and his procedurals are some of the best things since Maigret’ Observer

‘Totally convincing’ Financial Times

‘Mr Hebden has created a nice band of flics’ Oxford Times

‘Chief Inspector Evariste Clovis Désiré Pel, as well rounded a character as Maigret or Van der Valk’ Punch

‘Impeccable French ambience, unexaggerated flics, and a well-constructed solution. Hebden proves again that few understand Gallic cops better than English writers!’ The Times

‘Some characters grow as their saga lengthens and Pel… is one of them. You might say he is ripening along with the grapes’ Police Review

‘…written with downbeat humour and some delightful dialogue’ Financial Times

‘…all is most cunningly contrived and dovetailed into a coherent plot’ Irish Times

‘A thoroughly entertaining read’ Evening Standard

‘The best Gallic sleuth since Maigret’ London Mystery Selection

After the death of her father, Mark Hebden, creator of the quirky French detective Inspector Pel novels, Juliet Hebden took over the mantle of crime writer and has completed 8 more books in the series. In addition to writing, Juliet is a mother of six children and lives in France.