Like all French crime fiction, I found this a bit strange but entertaining. The mismatched crime fighting duo of an American masseuse and retired French policewoman were fun to read about and the plot chirped along nicely.

It might have been the fact that it was translated, but I just couldn't get into the story. There were also several moments where it was really clear that it was translated and it just felt unnatural. Gave up on this about halfway through.

By turns referred to as ‘the fat lady’, ‘the pain in the neck’ and the even less complimentary ‘the bitch’, Lola Jost is a short, unhealthy, foul tempered but has excellent powers of detection. Having left the force following the death of a colleague, she’s struggling to adjust to mundane civilian life, and despite her protestations, is all too eager to participate in the investigation. She is imbued with a natural caustic wit and if ever a character was said not to suffer fools gladly, she is it.

In an inspired piece of plotting Lola teams up with Ingrid Diesel, a statuesque American health freak with a colourful and well-travelled background, whom she meets through Maxime Duchamp, who himself is a key suspect in the case. Ingrid loves Paris and works as a masseur and an exotic dancer. Herein lies the strength of the characterisation, as the two women so defined by their differences, physically, culturally and emotionally, mesh together perfectly as a crime fighting duo par excellence. The humour and natural badiage between the two women leads to some real laugh-out-loud moments as Lola’s dour cynicism is pitted against the puppy dog eagerness of the lively Diesel. Interestingly, through their characterisation, Sylvain’s depiction of Paris takes on a different effect, filtered through the seen-it-all despondency of Lola as a native, and the wide-eyed enthusiasm of Diesel for the city as a visitor. So, we get to see the good and the bad nature of life within the city itself.

It is unusual to find a crime novel that works on so many levels simultaneously in terms of characterisation, location, plotting and dialogue. However, Sylvain achieves this with aplomb, producing not only an extremely readable murder mystery that is defined by location and the social exploration of its plot, but also by her depiction of the two main protagonists and the humour that ensues. I was delighted to discover that this is only the first of a series to be published in the UK featuring Lola Jost and Ingrid Diesel, and will await the others with a sense of impatience. A wholly satisfying read.