Inspector Lucas Rocco
11 primary works
Book 1
She was going to die. She could feel it, her life ebbing away as surely as fine sand through fingers. The thought caused her more sadness than fear; less a sense of foreboding than a cause to wonder what lay ahead. France, 1963. It's a time of great change in France, not least for Inspector Lucas Rocco. Taken out of his home base of Clichy, Paris, as part of a nationwide 'initiative' to broaden police operations, he finds himself in the village of Poissons-Les-Marais, Picardie - and answerable to his former army CO now police Commissaire Francois Massin, last seen by Rocco cowering in a foxhole in Indochina. His new patch might be rural, but it's certainly not uneventful. To begin with, he finds that hitting unexploded wartime ordnance with a hammer to harvest the metal for resale is something of a cottage industry. And when, on his first day, he finds a murdered woman wearing a Gestapo uniform lying in a British military cemetery, he knows life will be far from boring.
When the body is removed by order of a magistrate from the police mortuary before Rocco can finish his investigation, he traces the paperwork to the dead woman's father, war hero and big-time industrialist Philippe Bayer-Berbier. Yet Berbier denies that his daughter is dead. Following an attempt on one villager's life and the disappearance of another, Rocco uncovers a series of connections with Berbier and his activities in the SOE and the wartime Resistance. In spite of an official wall of bureaucracy and a strained relationship with Massin, he sets out to uncover what has led to the woman's death - and why Berbier will go to any lengths - even murder - to stop his investigation.
When the body is removed by order of a magistrate from the police mortuary before Rocco can finish his investigation, he traces the paperwork to the dead woman's father, war hero and big-time industrialist Philippe Bayer-Berbier. Yet Berbier denies that his daughter is dead. Following an attempt on one villager's life and the disappearance of another, Rocco uncovers a series of connections with Berbier and his activities in the SOE and the wartime Resistance. In spite of an official wall of bureaucracy and a strained relationship with Massin, he sets out to uncover what has led to the woman's death - and why Berbier will go to any lengths - even murder - to stop his investigation.
Book 1
Book 2
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...
Book 2
Book 3
Nothing else mattered. He'd been cut loose by his bosses and his twisted vision of what had happened saw only one ending: revenge. And that revenge was centred solely on Rocco. 1963, France. A farmer reports a truck ramming into a car near Picardie, followed by gunfire. A group of Englishmen are brought in after a bar fight. A tramp's body is discovered in a burnt out truck. All this occurring after multiple attempts on the President's life. Inspector Lucas Rocco knows there's a connection somewhere, and is recruited by Colonel Saint-Cloud to assist with the President's Security. Yet despite all clues pointing to the Pont Noir for the next attempt, both Massin and Saint-Cloud reject his suspicions. Left with no other option, Rocco decides to investigate the situation alone, risking censure by his superiors. And he must also contend with the lethal response of English gangsters if he should go too far. When the group of Englishmen return to France Rocco finds himself the victim of a set-up, leading to his suspension and investigation for bribery. With no badge, no authority and unsupported, Rocco is still determined to continue his investigation ...
Book 3
Book 4
"The man was standing on the bottom of the therapy pool in the Clos du Lac sanitarium, his white cotton shirt billowing out like gossamer in the clear, blue water." France, 1964. At the exclusive Clos du Lac sanitarium, a man is discovered standing in the therapy pool. But he's not there for his health; someone has chained him to the bottom, and left him there to slowly die. Inspector Lucas Rocco believes it's an unusual and elaborate method of execution, but finds that the inhabitants of the Clos du Lac are unwilling to talk. Nobody seems to have heard or seen anything, and the staff are resolutely unhelpful - or dead. Meanwhile, ministry officials sent from Paris to 'assist' in the investigation attempt to impede Rocco's efforts to find answers. It soon becomes clear the Clos du Lac is no ordinary sanitarium, and holds secrets the authorities feel are better left hidden. And with a high-level kidnapping mounted in an attempt to derail France's new trade agreements with China, Rocco faces threats from more than one quarter ...one of them a rogue government assassin.
Book 4
Book 5
When a minor Paris criminal is found stabbed in the neck on a country lane in Picardie it looks like another case for Inspector Lucas Rocco. But instead he is called off to watch over a Gabonese government minister, hiding out in France following a coup. Meanwhile, Rocco discovers that there is a contract on his head taken out by an Algerian gang leader with a personal grudge against him.
Book 6
Murder by suicide? Three senior government officials - a judge, a politician, and an ex-police chief - are all dead by their own hands. Inspector Lucas Rocco finds himself once more working for the Interior Ministry: undertaking an investigation meant to avoid a government scandal and ignoring unpalatable truths. He's soon convinced that a common denominator must be at play... Rocco uncovers top-level fraud, theft and deception. And when he narrowly survives an attempt on his life, he realises that he has nothing to lose by bringing the truth out into the open - whatever the risks.
Book 7
