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The Killing Tide: A Brittany Mystery    by Jean-Luc Bannalec Amazon.com order for
Killing Tide
by Jean-Luc Bannalec
Order:  USA  Can
Minotaur, 2020 (2020)
Hardcover, e-Book
* *   Reviewed by Hilary Williamson

The Killing Tide follows The Missing Corpse as the fifth in Jean-Luc Bannalec's enticing (because it makes readers want to go there) Brittany mystery series. The lead is Commissaire Georges Dupin, who was exiled to Brittany from Paris after offending his superiors by doing too good a job.

Dupin has gradually grown to appreciate his new locale and lifestyle, and has formed a strong relationship with cardiologist Claire, who has relocated herself and moved in with him. This episode opens on the discovery of a young woman's body - her throat was cut and she was dumped in a container of rotting fish at the fish auction hall in Douarnenez harbor.

The corpse is identified as that of a coastal fisherwoman who lived on the Īle de Sein off the west coast of Brittany. Soon the case is linked to illegal fishing, cigarette smuggling, and a man, Charles Morin with his 'finger in the pie in a whole raft of criminal affairs'.

There's another corpse, that of a young female dolphin researcher, and then yet another - three murders in less than one day. Complicating Dupin's life, his mother wants him in Paris for her seventy-fifth birthday celebration, and the assistant he depends on is involved in organizing a protest against the demolition of a sand bank.

Of course, we know that Dupin's steady persistence will lead to a solution. Along the way, readers are treated to an exploration of more of the byways of this beautiful part of the world alongside the Commissaire.

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