Stifling Folds of Love

Pearl Serein is the most desired woman in town. Her lovers are the city's leading men. She breaks up marriages, and after she dumps her lovers, their careers go down the tubes. Celebrity gossip scribe Tommi Bonneau chronicles Pearl's every romantic move in the morning paper, Le Cri du Matin. And he is relentless in serving his story, keeping the ideal of romantic love amongst the rich and famous at the heart of the ongoing saga. When Pearl's ex-lovers start dying of apparent heart attacks, there is no criminal evidence, but the common fact of Pearl makes it impossible for Commissaire Claude Neon to resist investigating. Soon seven men are dead and Claude himself is in danger. When victim number seven is discovered, Pearl flees and disappears. Inspector Aliette Nouvelle, who is no fan of celebrity news, warns, advises and tries to help. But the inspector cannot prevent her commissaire from falling into trouble -- first as a suspect, then a likely next victim, finally as a pawn to bring a resolution.

John Brooke became fascinated by criminality and police work listening to the courtroom stories and observations of his father, a long-serving judge. Although he lives in Montreal, John makes frequent trips to France for both pleasure and research. He earns a living as a freelance writer and translator, and has also worked as a film and video editor as well as directed four films on modern dance. His poetry and short stories have been widely published and in 1998 his story "The Finer Points of Apples" won him the Journey Prize. Brooke's first Inspector Aliette Nouvelle mystery, The Voice of Aliette Nouvelle, was published in 1999, followed byAll Pure Souls in 2001. He took a break from Aliette with the publication of his novelLast Days of Montreal in 2004, but returned with her in 2011 with Stifling Folds of Love, The Unknown Masterpiece in 2012,Walls of a Mind in 2013, which was shortlisted for the Arthur Ellis Best Crime Novel Award, andTropeanos's Gun in 2015.