Cauliflower Gratin (Malan Trilogy)

The first in a trilogy of books about and around the life of Michel Malan, captain of police, his cases, colleagues and friends. When a murder occurs in a quiet French village, Captain Malan is sure that the killer will be local almost certainly motivated by a grudge rising out of the web of personal and family relationships making up the village community. Colleagues agree and his senior officers encourage his line of inquiry. But as the investigation develops, the net is thrown ever wider, until a breakthrough leads him farther than he could ever had imagined in order to close his case.