Death En Voyage

While investigating the murder of Lady Dorothy Strathy in her Paris Hotel, Inspector Jean-Paul Gautier finds a man's cigarette case engraved with a rosebud. In his initial report, Gautier mentions the cigarette case and his notion that the murder might be associated with the Flower Girl Affair, a sex scandal of many years before involving schoolgirls and aristocrats. Then Gautier is challenged to a duel, illegal even in turn-of-the-century Paris, and is suspended from duty for his participation. How he uncovers the long-hidden secrets of a man of influence makes up the intricate and fully controlled plot of a strongly atmospheric procedural. This is the sixth appearance, following Crime Without Passion, of the honorable and worldly-wise inspector, in whose Paris telephones and motorbuses have yet to take the place of salons, calling cards and carriages. (May 19)