This book certainly caught me off guard. I could not put it down. Only a few books have been placed in that category and this is one. A rogue police officer Roger Blanc, who has butted heads with the higher echelon, was moved from Paris to the South of France and the Camargue. Roger’s life has drastically changed and he must try to move on and start anew. His wife left him for another man and she got the house and the good stuff while he got the car that needs repair and the old mill he inherited that is also in dire need of remodeling. Yet all of that will need to be placed on the back burner. A body is found Beside a dead fighting bull. At first glance it looks as though it could be an accident but Roger thinks different. Then there is something that happened in the past with art being stolen and they may be able to connect the two together. The author does a great job with the historical parts as well as providing details about present crimes in the book that help the reader to follow along without difficulties. Rademacher does not disappoint. This is a great thriller from page one.

Thank you to netgalley as well as the author/publisher for allowing me to read this book in exchange for my honest review.

This book gripped me early with the beauty of its landscape, held me with the gruff personality of its policeman, and deeply intrigued me with the introduction of an art history mystery. It was difficult to put down even for meals.

Cay Rademacher puts Capitaine Roger Blanc on the hot seat in Deadly Camargue. A bull kills a famous journalist who is in the Camargue to do an explosive article on Vincent van Gogh or followup on a jewel heist. Then it is discovered the gate on the bull's pen was left open. Murder!!! Too many suspects and many of them politically connected. Capitain Blanc has to defend his back and solve the crime. Read how he does it.

Somehow I missed the first of this new series and, after enjoying Deadly Camargue, I will go back and read Murderous Mistral. Captaine Roger Blanc is a man tossed out of his comfort zone in midlife. After a successful career as a policeman in Paris he has crossed the line with some people in power and that gets him turfed out of Paris and into the South of France and the Camargue. At the same time his wife decides to go her own way (with a lover) now that their two children are grown and Roger is gone. She keeps their Paris apartment and he gets the broken down car and a broken down converted olive oil mill that had belonged to his uncle. Both Roger's life and the old mill are in need of serious fixing up. Roger Blanc is a man who is being forced to reinvent most of himself and he is really struggling. But, as he is a very good investigator, when the gored body of a nationally known reporter is found next to his bike and so is the deadly fighting bull......the conclusion is that it was a tragic accident. Or was it? Blanc digs deeper along with the help of his co-worker, Fabienne Souillard, a lady with mad computer skills. Between them they uncover more than just a death by fighting bull. Can it be connected to an art theft from 1990? A Van Gogh painting was stolen from a small local museum and the case went stone cold. Might it be heating up because of Blanc's new case?
Along with being a very smooth translation and a multi layered mystery, the draw for me was the focus on Van Gogh and the setting of the South of France. I'm looking forward to seeing what life has in store of Roger Blanc in the next mystery.

Enjoyed this as much for the description of the Camargue as for the plot. Also a provocatived interpretation of Van Gogh's history in Provence. Much more than the typical mystery.

Deadly Carmargue was a well written charming mystery. France, a dead bicyclist, a bull, and a Van Gogh painting may all have something in common. I enjoyed the story.

A German-born author who lives in France, Rademacher's many books are just now starting to be translated into English. In this novel, the main character is Roger Blanc, a policeman who has left his urban job for one in a small town in Provence. Great, I thought--Provence! I've read Peter Mayle and enjoyed his books, I know what Provence is like and a mystery there sounds great. But Rademacher's Provence is just as hot and dusty as where I live, and reminds me of southern Spain, complete with bullfighting. I enjoyed the novel. The setting was well described and atmospheric, from the dry, flat plain to the storm that rages through the denouement. But as much as I liked the setting, I didn't really like the characters, including Roger (although I did like Fabienne, the lesbian computer genius). I'm not a big fan of melancholy and self-pity, and Roger's mourning the end of his marriage and his disaffected relationship with his children, his puppy-like devotion to and affair with Aveline, simultaneous with his half-regretful musings at losing Genevieve, were boring. The mid-life crises are just not interesting to me. Rather than conflicted, he came across as self-absorbed and at the same time, passive and inactive--unable to divorce his wife, unable to leave Aveline who will not leave her husband, unable to pursue a relationship with his neighbor--this kind of paralysis came across poorly and is not what I look for in main character. I like a character I can identify with in a least some small way, and I couldn't discover anything that I identified with in Roger. I found his situation more annoying that sympathetic. The conclusion was not satisfying in the traditional way many readers prefer, and it was my favorite part of the book. Some like to see our murderers get their comeuppance, but I thought the ending was realistic and believable. Rademacher's writing style appears, via translation, smooth, and the pace was adequate. Despite this, I doubt I'll read another because I don't really like Roger. But I'm glad that European authors are being translated for American readers, and many will delight in finding a new author with dozens of novels for them to read.

3 stars

It is very hot during summer in Provence, but Captaine Roger Blanc and his partner Marcus Tonon are nonetheless called to a mysterious accident in the Camargue. It seems a fighting bull has gored a passing cyclist. Or, was it an accident? The gate to the bull’s pasture was left open – on purpose?

The dead man is Albert Cohen, a magazine reporter who specialized in politics among other things. He was from Paris. He had come to the Camargue to write a story about Vincent Van Gogh.

When Blanc finds Tonon’s incomplete manuscript, it isn’t as innocuous as first assumed. The suspects they discover during the investigation are man, and for many and varied reasons and not just the Van Gogh story. Could it be the old art theft of the Van Gogh from the Musee Maly?

The suicide of one of their suspects only slightly rattles Blanc and Tonon. Behind a letter is left addressed to Blanc. In it the deceased person outlines some things he saw wrong with Blanc’s investigation. Blanc feels guilt and shame at the man’s death.

But the police get a confession and it all feels rather anticlimactic.

This is a well written story. The plotting is a little confusing, but perhaps that is a problem with the translation. I’m not sure I liked Blanc. He seemed – well, I’m not sure what he seemed. Unsure of himself? Going aimlessly from theory to theory?

I want to thank NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press/Minotaur for forwarding to me a copy of this book to read and review.

An intriguing mystery with an artistic twist, and a fascinating setting that most American readers are probably unfamiliar with. Definitely a series to watch.