April Thirtieth

Chef inspector blanc, of the Paris police force, who had been brought to Paris from the Auvergne by Joseph Fouché, Bonaparte’s Minister of Police, was at an important meeting in the Ministers office when an Inspector Cartier came with a message for Blanc. Blac stood up immediately, told Cartier to wait outside and drew Fouché away from the conference table, over to a window. ‘Madame de Besancourt has just been found strangled in her own apartment’ Blanc said in a low voice. So begins an intoxicating novel of murder in very high society.