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Peter Steiner

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Le Crime: A Thriller (The Louis Morgon Thrillers Book 1) Kindle Edition

by Peter Steiner (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

3.9 245 ratings

Book 1 of 5: Louis Morgon Thrillers

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A cross between The Spy Who Came in from the Cold and A Year in Provence, this ingenious thriller gets stunning raves from one and all:

"A marvel." - Olen Steinhauer • "Riveting." - France Today • "Elements of Agatha Christie and Robert Ludlum." - Bookreporter.com • "'Superbe'." - Jim Fusilli • "Like a good Alan Furst or Graham Greene." - The Washingtonian • "Engaging." - Publishers Weekly

Le Crime is a story of political intrigue, corruption and jealousy. It is also a story of love and friendship and, of course, France.

When political intrigue drove Louis Morgon from a successful career at the State Department, he moved to a cottage in France, far from Washington and what he called "the sordid world." He took up painting. He grew vegetables and flowers. He ate long, lovely meals on the terrace overlooking fields of sunflowers. He thought that he had found happiness.

Then one day Louis's past lands squarely on his doorstep. It does so in the shape of a dead man. His throat has been slit. He wears a cap with liberte embroidered on it. Except for the local cop, Jean Renard, the police are strangely uninterested. This seems peculiar to Renard, but not to Louis. He knows who the murderer is. He also knows that he is likely to be the next victim. And there is very little he or Renard or anyone else can do. Each clue they find raises more questions than it answers. Nothing is as it appears.

Louis's best hope is to turn the tables on his murderer. Instead of knowledge, he has only his intuition and his intelligence. Instead of power or influence, he has only his own past. Louis finds himself on a lonely and dangerous journey of self-discovery. He thought he was beyond surprises. But every turn of the road reveals new mysteries, and the resolution is a shock.

This book was previously published as A French Country Murder.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“A fantastic novel, at once a gripping political thriller, and a complex mystery tale.”
---David Brooks, author of Bobos in Paradise

“Le Carré and Deighton fans will welcome Steiner’s engaging first novel.”
---Publishers Weekly

About the Author

Earlier in his life, Peter Steiner taught literature for a living. Then he became a cartoonist for The New Yorker. He now writes stunningly good spy novels. He has published books including The Terrorist, L'Assassin and Le Crime (published in hardcover as A French Country Murder) in his series set in France and featuring ex-CIA man Louis Morgon. Peter Steiner makes his home in France and Connecticut.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Le Crime

By Steiner, Peter

St. Martin's Minotaur

Copyright © 2008 Steiner, Peter
All right reserved.
ISBN: 9780312380663
Chapter One

EVERY MORNING, AS THE BELLS OF THE CHURCH IN SAINT LEON SUR Dême were clanging eight o’clock, Louis Morgon set the two pitchers, one of hot milk, the other of coffee, along with a cup and a knife, a baguette, the white and blue butter dish, and the little cracked marmalade pot on the battered metal tray and carried them all out to the terrace. If the day was cold, he put on a gray wool overcoat and wrapped an old plaid shawl around his neck. When it rained, he sat contentedly under the faded umbrella as it flapped and rattled in the wind and the rain dripped around him. When it was hot, he wore a T-shirt and a pair of shorts. From the little table between house and barn, he could gaze over the gravel driveway, across the descending garden at the field running up the opposite hill. What he saw changed with the weather and the seasons. But, however it changed, it always pleased him as though he were seeing it for the first time.

This year, as it happened, the fields were planted in sunflowers, which were in full bloom now, their massive heads sagging under the weight of their seed. And this particular Tuesday morning, the sun was brilliant. Its brilliance was refracted in the thousands of drops of dew that still clung to the grass, the hedge, the roses, the herbs and vegetables, the ivy and trumpet vine which climbed the stone barn. The sky was that particular blue which endures right down to the horizon, a color so intense and deep that you can feel the blackness of outer space behind it.

As Louis opened the door with his right hand, balancing the tray with his left, something fell lightly against his leg. He looked down to see that it was the arm of a dead man who lay across his doorstep, having been deposited there sometime during the night. Louis pulled his leg back, and the dead arm settled on the floor. Louis did not drop the tray. To an observer it might almost have appeared as though he had expected to find the dead man there.

Louis carried the tray back to the kitchen. Then, after steadying himself against the table for a moment, he returned to look at the body. It had belonged to a black man although by now the skin had taken on that peculiar gray pallor the dead share, no matter what race they may have been. The dead man wore blue jeans and running shoes without socks, and a polo shirt not tucked in. There was a red, green, and black embroidered skullcap sitting on the front of his head.

The man’s throat had been slit from ear to ear. But, aside from the blood crusted black along the edges of the wound, there was no blood anywhere else, not on the ground and not on the man’s clothes. The eyes were closed. The mouth was closed. The man seemed perfectly tranquil, but for the gaping smile which had been cut into his neck.

Louis was not entirely undone by the grim sight of this corpse, even though this was his first face-to-face encounter with violent death. Nor was he worried that the man’s murderer or murderers might still be lurking about, although he perhaps should have been. Louis walked to the top of the driveway and peered down the hill. He came back, crouched down, and studied the man. After some hesitation, he lifted the hands, first one then the other, more to feel the weight of the dead arms than anything else. He looked at the fingernails, although he did not know what he expected to see. The arms were hard and heavy. They no longer had the feeling of human flesh.

Louis examined the clothes. The dead man’s pants and shirt were clean and looked to be new. There was nothing in his pockets. The cap had the word Liberté embroidered on it.

Louis stood and looked at the dead man for a long time. Then he went inside, closed the door, and dialed the number of the police. When, a short time later, the police car came up the drive followed by the ambulance, Louis was seated at his outdoor table, his back to the corpse. He rose as though to greet invited visitors. The men shook hands all around. After a quick exchange of friendly words, Louis and Renard, who was the Saint Leon gendarme, went over to look at the dead man. Renard crouched down to look at the man. This was not Renard’s first corpse by any means, but it was his first murder—at least, as he said with a slight smile, as far as he knew. The ambulance men had edged up behind Louis and Renard and were peering at the body.

"He was killed elsewhere," said Renard to no one in particular and stood up. He gazed for a few moments at the body from this vantage and then turned his gaze on Louis. At just over forty-five, Renard was probably fifteen years younger than Louis. He stood half a head taller than the older man. Louis’s thin white hair riffled in the breeze. He felt the policeman looking at him. "Coffee?" he offered. Without waiting for an answer, he went inside to make a pot.

After Renard had finished with the dead man, he nodded to the ambulance men, and they lifted the corpse onto a stretcher. The skullcap fell off. One of the men picked it up and put it on the stretcher. They loaded the body into the ambulance and shut the door. Then they all stood in the bright sun and drank coffee. They drank in silence.

"A warning from ‘the sordid world’?" asked the gendarme finally. "The sordid world" was one of those phrases which old married couples and old friends have as a sort of code for ancient and familiar arguments. It reminds them why they like and dislike one another. Louis did not answer.

The ambulance men waited. The gendarme motioned with his head. They took a last sip of coffee and set their cups on the edge of the table. They shook hands with Louis, got in the ambulance, and backed down the driveway. They did not turn on the blue lights. The ambulance disappeared backward over the rim of the hill. Louis and the gendarme listened while the driver changed gears at the bottom of the drive and drove off toward town.

"We are so far from Washington. How did they find you? And why?" Louis did not answer. "He looks North African. There will probably be a big investigation. It will get political."

"It already is political," said Louis and turned his face into the wind. He appeared to regret having said even that.

Then the two men made small talk. Renard promised to let Louis know if he discovered anything about the dead man. But neither man expected that he would discover very much. They stood in silence for a while, listening to the wind shake the leaves of the linden trees, listening to the birds. Then they shook hands and Renard left.

Louis returned to the kitchen with the empty coffee cups. He refilled the coffeepot, picked up his breakfast tray, and carried it back outside to the table. He sat down facing the field of sunflowers. The butter had gotten soft. The marmalade was sweet and bitter as good marmalade is. He ate his breakfast with relish and sorrow. When Dominique Brisard came clattering up the drive on her moped, he had just finished eating. She came every Tuesday morning to clean his house.

"Bonjour, monsieur," she said. "It is a beautiful day." She smiled broadly and swept her arms about her. Her gesture took in the garden, the roses climbing the front of the house, the fields, the sky, the whole world.

"It is a beautiful day, Dominique," Louis responded, and she thought in that moment that Monsieur Morgon was surely the most contented man she had ever known.

Excerpted from Le Crime by Peter Steiner.

Published in 2008 by St. Martin’s Press

All rights reserved. This work is protected under copyright laws and reproduction is strictly prohibited. Permission to reproduce the material in any manner or medium must be secured from the Publisher.

Continues...
Excerpted from Le Crime by Steiner, Peter Copyright © 2008 by Steiner, Peter. Excerpted by permission.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B004YEP6VQ
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Minotaur Books; First edition (July 8, 2008)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ July 8, 2008
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 1134 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
Print length ‏ : ‎ 265 pages

Best Sellers Rank: #872,824 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #348 in Disability Fiction
- #4,314 in International Mystery & Crime (Kindle Store)
- #7,526 in Serial Killer Thrillers

Customer Reviews:
3.9 245 ratings

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Peter Steiner

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PETER STEINER was born and grew up in Cincinnati. After the University of Miami and the Free University of Berlin, and then after serving in the U.S. Army in Germany, he got a PHD. in German literature. He taught at Dickinson College for eight years, but left teaching to become an artist and cartoonist. For the next twenty-five years he made his living as a cartoonist for The New Yorker and many other publications. He created the cartoon "On the internet nobody knows you're a dog," the most reproduced cartoon The New Yorker has ever published. In the late 1990's he began writing novels, at first for his own amusement. Then A French Country Murder was published in 2003. L'Assassin followed in 2008; The Terrorist in 2010, The Resistance in 2012, The Capitalist in 2016. His most recent novel is The Good Cop, his sixth, published by Severn House in 2019. He lives in Connecticut and spends a good part of each year in rural France. He divides his time between writing, painting and cartooning. His paintings can be seen on his website, plsteiner.com. His cartoons are published on his blog Hopeless but not Serious at plsteiner.com/blog.

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L. Howe Steiger

Thrilling in a different way

Reviewed in the United States on December 13, 2013

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I hesitate to describe a serious, really good thriller as "lovely," but in fact that's the word that comes to mind. Perhaps it's the French setting, so affectionately described, perhaps it's the long meditations on conspiracies at the highest level of government. Something, however, slows the rough and tumble pace of your typical spy thriller without losing intensity or engagement. This is not a story that hangs at the endue of cliff or features an intrepid hero rushing stupidly towards disaster after disaster. There isn't much in the way of violence, on stage. Louis Morgon, once a wunderkind in the spy world, is now an old man--well not so very old--but definitely in retirement, come to a tiny village in France after being summarily dismissed from his job at State, where he can't resist taking up a paintbrush to make landscapes. Then one beautiful morning, Louis carries his breakfast out on the terrace to eat while admiring the field of blooming sunflowers and stumbles on the body of a dead man sprawled across his doorstep. Somehow Louis is certain that this surprise delivery is connected with a past he believed he'd left far behind. This is the first in a series of spy thrillers and probably ought be read first, as Steiner spends much effort introducing us to Louis, his old colleagues, his estranged family, and his new French village friends. Highly recommended.

2 people found this helpful

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Henri IV

Good, quick, ingenious read

Reviewed in the United States on September 21, 2012

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I liked this book, not because I found it such a clever mystery--it doesn't have the intellectual complexity of a P.D. James--but because the descriptions of the protagonist's discovery of the French countryside and French village life so closely parallel my own. There is something profoundly gripping about la France Profonde. The concept of knowing instantly that a place one has never been before is really one's only home...France does that...at least it did it to me, as it did to Louis Morgon. The murder story and its resolution are a bit strained, but France itself remains a powerful presence.

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Henry Gould

pleasant summer escapism

Reviewed in the United States on July 30, 2010

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I enjoyed this book, & will read more by the author. The scenes of French village life are appealing, as are the main characters; the plot is curious & well-constructed. My quibbles : the author betrays a certain anti-American snobbery (see the brief sarcastic & stereotypical scene with the racist American cab driver) and a lugubrious cynicism about government in general (very convenient for summer-escapist philosophy).

My main motive for writing this review, however, is to complain about the atrocious proofreading and typesetting of this book. Page after page of screwed-up typesetting and typos - pretty amazing from a major mainstream publishing house. The author must be mortified; this reader (& purchaser) feels ripped off.

One person found this helpful

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Garrett Hutson

Elegantly-written and suspenseful, highly enjoyable

Reviewed in the United States on June 19, 2013

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This is a beautifully-written book, with language that draws you into the story and the characters. The setting is vividly portrayed. Steiner reveals Louis Morgon's character and past little-by-little, keeping you on the hook as you want to learn more about him. He reveals just enough. In Louis, we have a reluctant hero who is very likable even while being somewhat cynical.

Part murder mystery, part suspensful thriller, the story starts with a body being left on Louis's doorstep in the little village of Saint Leon-sur-Deme. Through recollections of his past life in the "sordid world," Louis is able to determine who is behind the murder, even though no one else will believe his theory. The rest of the story involves a cat-and-mouse game with a powerful political figure which will keep you wondering what will happen next.

My only criticism would be that occasionally it is unclear who is speaking the dialogue, as it can change even within a paragraph, and a few times I had to reread a few lines to make that determination. But that is a very small critique of an otherwise great book. I highly recommend it, and look forward to reading more of the series.

2 people found this helpful

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Kindle Customer

Good international fun.

Reviewed in the United States on January 10, 2021

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With a couple unlikely murders and an even less likely hero. Plus a lot of bloviating. The musette episodes were sad and endearing. I will read the next one.

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Senior90

What about the ending?

Reviewed in the United States on April 22, 2017

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How do you review a book without an ending? It just seemed to drift away. That, and the interminable pages of soul searching and philosophy combined to make it a somewhat dull read. I'm sorry to say that because I read Steiner's "The Resistance" and thought it was excellent, but "Le Crime" fell far short of that.

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Suzanne T

Well-Written and Entertaining

Reviewed in the United States on October 6, 2014

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I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and will read the other Louis Morgon novels. It reminds me of the Louise Penny Inspector Gamache novels - set in a small, French-speaking town. I really like the writing, the descriptions of people and places, as well as the slow, thoughtful pace and style.

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AgingLawyer

Manipulator Manipulated

Reviewed in the United States on June 1, 2015

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The political power thread made it more interesting than just a pure revenge crime mystery. Louis Morgan is a cleverly conceived, reluctant sleuth.