Jean-Luc Bannalec An Island of Suspects

An August heat wave has all of Brittany in its grasp, and the only chance to cool down for Commissaire Georges Dupin is his daily swim in the ocean. Until one morning his routine is interrupted because a body has been found in the harbour with clear signs of foul play. Patric Provost was from one of the long-established families on the island of Belle-Île, Breton’s biggest and most famous island. Provost owned and operated a company dealing in an island delicacy: the famous Belle-Île-sheep. As Bretons say, the sheep season themselves while they’re eating, grazing on salty, iodine-rich meadows, full of wild herbs, directly by the ocean. In Dupin’s culinary ranking, this lamb comes right behind entrecôte. And that’s saying something. Dupin has barely stepped foot on the utopia-like island before it comes to light that Provost was not well liked. And someone was blackmailing him for one million euros, the deadline for payment the night before Provost’s body was caught on the buoy. Everyone on the island has a motive. Any one of them could be the killer.