Krimienologists take note. Mark Hebden, Pel among the Pueblos (1987). Recommended.
I read some Pel books in the 1980s and then moved on. It is a pleasure now to renew acquaintance with the irascible Chief Inspector Pel, the scourge of wrong doers on his patch of Burgundy. Clapping villains in irons was the greatest pleasure of his miserable life, that is, until he met the subsequent Madame Pel….
Hebden wrote a score of these titles and his daughter took over when he passed away.
In this entry Pel is in full flight, literally, since a particularly complicated murder takes him our of Burgundy. Shudder. But at least not to the sink of iniquity, Paris. But rather to Mexico City! For a man who had never left Burgundy it was a terrible experience. It got worse when he tried to eat!
Worse still when the inquiry stretched on and he feared he had not brought enough cigarettes. Though ever dutiful to Madame Pel’s injunctions, he did try to quit, several times a day.
I loved the Mexican detective Barribal who knew what to do and how to do it, though not the way Per would. Certainly not!
Meanwhile back in God’s country, Burgundy, the team gets on with nabbing some pretty tricky villains.
Along the way I found out a little about the Emperor Maximillan’s ill-fated time in Mexico, and the intricacies of auto insurance in France.
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