[Lynx-lynx]

I recently read the first two of English author Adrian Magson's Police series set in the 1960's in the Amiens region of France and thoroughly enjoyed them.

I suggest that they would interest readers of Donna Leon, Louise Penny, Martin Walker and Michael Dibdin, even though those books are set in the present times.

The main character, Inspector Rocco, isn't philosophical in nature as are the main characters in Leon and Penny's works, but the overall feel and style of all the mentioned authors books are not too dissimilar.

The 1960's was an interesting period in France for many reasons, but particularly in this context because Amiens was one of the regions still recovering emotionally, mentally, physically and environmentally from both the First and Second World Wars.

The synopsis of book 1, Death on the Marais, as follows

Spoiler:

She was going to die. She could feel it, her life ebbing away as surely as fine sand through fingers.

France, 1963. It’s a time of great change, not least for Inspector Lucas Rocco. As part of a nationwide ‘initiative’ to broaden police operations, he finds himself moved from the Paris metropolis to a small village. His new patch might be rural, but it’s certainly not uneventful: on his first day, he finds a murdered woman wearing a Gestapo uniform lying in a British military cemetery. When the body is removed by order of a magistrate from the police mortuary before Rocco can finish his investigation, he realises he’s up against a formidable enemy. An enemy who will go to any lengths – even murder – to stop his investigation.

The synopsis of book 2, Death on the Rive Nord, as follows:

Spoiler:

Picardie, 1963. In the dead of night a truck drops a group of illegal workers by a deserted stretch of canal - days later, one of them is found stabbed to death and Inspector Lucas Rocco has a new case to solve.

Trawling the Algerian community for information is a sensitive issue, one that terrifies his bosses who force Rocco to tread carefully. Too carefully for Rocco’s liking. To add to his problems, amongst the illegal immigrants is a young woman on the run from her brutal gangster husband, Samir Farek – a man with a big agenda: to take over as gang lord in Paris, and willing to dispose of anyone who gets in his way...