Goat Song

Grumpy Parisian police investigator Maurice Laice—"he was definitely going to die before his time and never benefit from his pension"—looks into a series of bizarre murders in French author Pelletier's slow-paced, bittersweet novel, which won the Grand Prix du roman noir of Cognac in 2001. A male dancer for the Moulin Rouge and a female dresser are murdered, bodies intertwined in a hideous parody of the sex act—or something darker? A junkie has his throat ripped out by human teeth. Plagued by his lesbian supervisor, Aline Lefèvre, who constantly puns his name as "More Is Less," the aging cop prowls Montmartre, where crack cocaine and an escalating real estate market offer answers. Perhaps something is lost in translation, as American noir fans are likely to find this only an average read. (June)