The Murdered House: A Mystery

By Pierre Magnan

Book Overview

From one of Frances's leading crime writers, whose "The Messengers of Death "was named by "Publishers Weekly "as one of their 10 Best Mysteries of 2008, comes this exceptional classic mystery. At the turn of the century in Upper Provence, a family is violently massacred. The sole survivor of the tragedy is a three-week-old baby. Twenty years later, the orphaned survivor returns home to avenge his family's killers. Then unexpected secrets set in motion a dreadful unveiling of the past...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0312367201
• ISBN13: 9780312367206
• Release Date: November 2009
• Publisher: Minotaur Books
• Length: 256 Pages
• Weight: 0.55 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.5" x 0.9" x 6.0"

Customer Reviews

a novel worth reading!

For mystery fans . . . for fans of just plain good books, here is a novel, both well written and well translated . . .

"Everyone has his own broken face."

Darkly atmospheric, The Murdered House is a mystery cloaked in tragedy, begun in 1896 and finished in 1920 when orphan Seraphim Monge returns from the war as a road worker, arriving at his ancestral home only to take it apart, brick by brick, until nothing remains. Clutching a rusted key, Monge opens the door to the past, hindered by a lack of knowledge and an urge to destroy the place of his birth. His entire family murdered...

a wonderfully lyrical historical mystery

A reasonably entertaining murder mystery (both plausible and mentally challenging) but more so a wonderful historical portrait of post WWI Provence. The character development was such that following the narrative was relaxing and watching their day to day activities engrossing. If it were suggested that this had been written in another century I would have easily agreed. The writing is that beautiful. I could only...