Night-Scented Book

A sly and stylish crime novel set in Paris, Night-Scented charts a course from the dizzying luxury of the city's fashion houses to the unseen corners where its homeless use their wits to survive. An ambitious and acerbic young woman launches Arbaud, an upstart fashion house. An ascetic perfumer joins her, intent on creating a scent that will mark the apogee of his career. The aristocratic head of one of the pillars of the Paris fashion scene searches for a means to shore up her crumbling empire. An enigmatic homeless man wanders the banks of the Seine, utterly destitute but utterly free. And then the killings begin. A car is driven off a country road by a stolen truck. An elegant businessman is executed backstage at a fashion show. Both were key investors in Arbaud. The world of luxury brands, frivolous handmaid to the pampered and privileged, seems to be flexing its claws. Night-Scented sees the return of Franck Guerin, the unwilling hero of David Barrie's previous mystery Wasp-Waisted. A noxious cocktail of jealous rivalry and unbridled ambition awaits him, with too many suspects and too little proof. Life is not getting any easier. Or death, for that matter.Read More