Unheilvolles Lançon

CAY RADEMACHER
Unheilvolles Lançon. Ein Provence-Krimi mit Capitaine Roger Blanc / Calamitous Lançon. A Provence Mystery with Capitaine Roger Blanc

A Crime Novel
ca. 384 pages
Spring 2024

The 11th Case for Capitaine Roger Blanc – the 11th volume of the Spiegel Bestseller seriesMore than 900,00 copies sold of the series

“The perfect pick for fans of Rademacher’s suspense-packed holiday mysteries!” Sven Trautwein, FRANKFURTER NEUE PRESSE, on Silent Sainte-Victoire

“Tense, multi-layered, and equipped with a charismatic lead — well worth a read.” Buchjournal

“Such a gripping and easy read that you sometimes forget how much research has gone into it.” Manfred Hammes, LUST AUF PROVENCE on Silent Sainte-Victoire
 


Dreamlike Châteaux, Noble Grape Varieties, Deadly Intrigues: Capitaine Blanc Investigates in the World of Wine

It’s May in Provence. Château Richelme is a large vineyard and quite possibly the best in the region. But even here, the vintners have long taken to using high tech — like the drones they use to film pests among the vines. One day, one of these tiny flying devices captures footage of the body of a woman, lying motionless in the garrigue. Capitaine Blanc and his colleagues are alerted by the vintners, but when they reach the vineyard, the woman has disappeared without a trace. Was she simply a hiker taking a quick rest before continuing on her way? Or was the woman the victim of a crime? No one has been reported missing and there are no viable clues. But people at Château Richelme spark Blanc’s suspicions: a famous vintner on his death bed; his wife, who wants to sell the castle to a dodgy broker; a son who’s been disinherited, but wants to cling on to the castle at all costs; two workers who fear for their jobs and have something to hide, and an old family friend, anothe vintner, himself gravely ill, who is in gruesome competition with the owner of Château Richelme to see who will survive the longest.
The investigations lead Blanc among vines and olive trees, into the garrigue, into quaint Provençale locationss like Aurons and Caillouteaux, into the famous Cité Radieuse of Le Corbusier, but also to the Hôpital Nord, a huge hospital on a hill above Marseille. Blanc ultimately learns the identity of the missing woman — a puzzling, charismatic person who is clearly connected, somehow, to every person at the vineyard. The Capitaine gradually realises that there is somebody at Château Richelme who will stop at nothing to achieve their goal, and the unknown woman is not their only victim…