A French Country Murder - Tapa dura

Finding a dead body on the doorstep of his home in rural France, former CIA insider Louis Morgon teams up with the local gendarme and finds clues in the loves and betrayals of the past and present. A first novel.

Artists and Writers Celebrate Peter Steiner's A French Country Murder

"This is a fantastic novel, at once a gripping political thriller, a complex mystery tale, and a wise and penetrating look at ambition, duty, and lost ambitions. Peter Steiner superbly evokes France, Washington, and international relations. It's rewarding on every level."
- David Brooks, author of Bobos in Paradise: The New Upper Class and How They Got There

"Best known for his subtle cartoons in The New Yorker, Peter Steiner has now done an unexpected, but expert, back-flip into the world of international intrigue with this, his first novel. A French Country Murder takes Louis Morgon, late of the CIA, deep into the French countryside in this melancholy thriller in which the compound humiliations of a powerful man lead to murder. Let me be the first to offer a well-deserved champagne toast to this book and its author, who seems to have mastered within its pages a whole new world. Salud!"
- Jack Ziegler, cartoonist for The New Yorker

"Peter Steiner's rattling, sophisticated international thriller of lies, spies, cover-ups, malignant powers, betrayal, love, and detection comes wrapped in a headily exquisite mise-en-scene--the tastiest crepe that's ever astonished you in the French countryside. I could stop till I'd sopped up that last drop of sauce!"
- Diana McLellan, author of The Girls: Sappho Goes to Hollywood

"I really enjoyed reading Peter Steiner's book. I loved the feeling of the French countryside's peace and quiet that permeated the story. Even the murder itself seemed a quiet event, a welcome change from the pyrotechnics of other murder mysteries. The characters are engaging and reader-friendly and the story unfolds at a perfect pace, the emotions and inner thoughts of the protagonist worked in seamlessly, adding depth to the events."
- Mick Stevens, cartoonist for The New Yorker