An engaging murder mystery that picks away at the delicate power balance between king, police and state,Parot’s evocation of eighteenth-century Paris is richly imagined,The atmosphere is marvellous, the historical detail precise, and Le Floch and his colleagues are an engaging bunch,Has all the twists, turns and surprises the genre demands,Brilliantly evokes the casual brutality of life in eighteenth-century France,Fascinating