An Inspector Lafarge omnibus
The Tortured Detective
1942. Paris is a city under occupation.
Detective Inspector Lafarge, a former prisoner of war, is sent to investigate the murder of the beautiful young film actress Marguerite Suchet. The man who has called upon him is the Vichy chief of police Rene Bousquet - who Lafarge despises.
The chief suspect is a lawyer and avowed anti-Nazi, Pierre-Yves de Chastelain. But is he only being targeted because of his run-ins with the law before the war broke out?
As Lafarge becomes increasingly repelled by his colleagues' behaviour towards all those who oppose the Nazis, he must question the allegiances and loyalty of everyone around him...and ultimately his own as well.
The Compromised Detective
It's August 1944 and the people of France are celebrating liberation from Nazi occupation - but a nasty hangover remains.
French men and women faced a stark choice in those dark days: to resist or to collaborate. Some, like Chief Inspector Gaston Lafarge, tried to keep a foot in both camps.
Lafarge, as a significant cog in the Vichy regime which worked with its German masters, believed he could still go about his business of investigating ordinary crime while his bosses plotted crimes that would stain the history of the proud country for decades to come - and also plot their downfall.
After committing a series of murders Lafarge attempts to flee the country in search of a new life with his Argentine wife and two children, but his bid ends with the sinking of their ship.
He is rescued and returns alone to Paris where he is permitted to resume his police duties at a time when the Free French leader General de Gaulle is returning from exile in London to take control of the country.
But reluctantly backed by the Americans, who give in to Winston Churchill's persuasive powers, de Gaulle faces a new enemy from within - a right-wing group of pro-monarchists led by one Colonel Antoine de Cambedessus who long to restore the monarchy in the shape of Henri d'Orleans, the Comte de Paris, and descended from Louis-Philippe King of France from 1830-48.
Incredibly, Lafarge takes de Cambedessus' wife Berenice as his lover - so their paths are already on a collision course ...
The Haunted Detective
Paris might be liberated and the war at an end but a huge influx of returning refugees, concentration camp survivors and less savoury types who fought for or collaborated with the Nazis presents a whole swathe of problems for a hard-pressed government.
There is also a thirst for vengeance -- some taken on the street but also a set of trials in court for the major figures in the Vichy Government.
One of those is Lafarge's father -- the senior confidant of Marshal Petain -- who is incarcerated in Fresnes prison with others from the disgraced regime.
Lafarge fears for his father's life and along with his colourful step brother -- who has returned on a train filled with POW's -- pays two guards to look out for him.
However, he is murdered and whilst Lafarge is warned by his superior to take a backseat on the investigation he is soon heavily involved.
With the fear his own past crimes will be revealed and with his family a constant source of anxiety he becomes enmeshed in a sinister tale of betrayal and murder...
Pirate Irwin spent 20 years in France where he worked for leading press agency Agence France Presse (AFP), and became fascinated by a country still haunted by its past.
Genre: Historical
The Tortured Detective
1942. Paris is a city under occupation.
Detective Inspector Lafarge, a former prisoner of war, is sent to investigate the murder of the beautiful young film actress Marguerite Suchet. The man who has called upon him is the Vichy chief of police Rene Bousquet - who Lafarge despises.
The chief suspect is a lawyer and avowed anti-Nazi, Pierre-Yves de Chastelain. But is he only being targeted because of his run-ins with the law before the war broke out?
As Lafarge becomes increasingly repelled by his colleagues' behaviour towards all those who oppose the Nazis, he must question the allegiances and loyalty of everyone around him...and ultimately his own as well.
The Compromised Detective
It's August 1944 and the people of France are celebrating liberation from Nazi occupation - but a nasty hangover remains.
French men and women faced a stark choice in those dark days: to resist or to collaborate. Some, like Chief Inspector Gaston Lafarge, tried to keep a foot in both camps.
Lafarge, as a significant cog in the Vichy regime which worked with its German masters, believed he could still go about his business of investigating ordinary crime while his bosses plotted crimes that would stain the history of the proud country for decades to come - and also plot their downfall.
After committing a series of murders Lafarge attempts to flee the country in search of a new life with his Argentine wife and two children, but his bid ends with the sinking of their ship.
He is rescued and returns alone to Paris where he is permitted to resume his police duties at a time when the Free French leader General de Gaulle is returning from exile in London to take control of the country.
But reluctantly backed by the Americans, who give in to Winston Churchill's persuasive powers, de Gaulle faces a new enemy from within - a right-wing group of pro-monarchists led by one Colonel Antoine de Cambedessus who long to restore the monarchy in the shape of Henri d'Orleans, the Comte de Paris, and descended from Louis-Philippe King of France from 1830-48.
Incredibly, Lafarge takes de Cambedessus' wife Berenice as his lover - so their paths are already on a collision course ...
The Haunted Detective
Paris might be liberated and the war at an end but a huge influx of returning refugees, concentration camp survivors and less savoury types who fought for or collaborated with the Nazis presents a whole swathe of problems for a hard-pressed government.
There is also a thirst for vengeance -- some taken on the street but also a set of trials in court for the major figures in the Vichy Government.
One of those is Lafarge's father -- the senior confidant of Marshal Petain -- who is incarcerated in Fresnes prison with others from the disgraced regime.
Lafarge fears for his father's life and along with his colourful step brother -- who has returned on a train filled with POW's -- pays two guards to look out for him.
However, he is murdered and whilst Lafarge is warned by his superior to take a backseat on the investigation he is soon heavily involved.
With the fear his own past crimes will be revealed and with his family a constant source of anxiety he becomes enmeshed in a sinister tale of betrayal and murder...
Pirate Irwin spent 20 years in France where he worked for leading press agency Agence France Presse (AFP), and became fascinated by a country still haunted by its past.
Genre: Historical
Used availability for Pirate Irwin's War Crimes