Superintendant Daquin is a truly unconventional hero and a very likeable man. Openly gay he delights in flouting the establishment and will go to any lengths to clean up corruption in 1980s' Paris; nor is the international dimension ignored. Reading may be slowed by the unfamiliar names and the use of the present tense; but then it's speeded up by the sheer suspense. I hope many more of Manotti's superb thrillers will be published in the UK.
