Paris Requiem

British author Lloyd makes his U.S. debut with a stellar sequel to 2020’s The Unwanted Dead. In 1940 Nazi-occupied Paris, police detective Eddie Giral, a wise-cracking maverick determined to stay faithful to his responsibilities despite the risks to his life, investigates the death of a man found in a jazz club, who apparently had been trying to rob the safe. Giral gets several surprises at the scene: the victim is tied to a chair with twine, his lips sewn shut, and he’s Julot le Bavard, a recidivist burglar who was supposed to be in prison. The autopsy confirms that someone suffocated le Bavard by sealing his mouth and holding his nostrils closed, leading Giral to focus on the reason for the bizarre murder method and an explanation for his premature release from incarceration. He pursues every theory, including whether the Gestapo killed le Bavard. Little details, such as the occupied city now being governed by German time, which runs an hour ahead of French time, bring the period to life. Admirers of J. Robert Jane’s St-Cyr and Kohler series will be delighted. (Feb.)