Lorraine Connection

Description

A factory owned by the Korean Daewoo group in Pondage, Lorraine, manufactures cathode ray tubes. Working conditions are abysmal, but it's the only source of employment in the area and workers are too scared to protest until a strike breaks out and there's a fire at the factory - but is it an accident? Later, the factory is the focus of a strategic takeover battle by electronics giant Thompson. Contrary to expectations, the Matra-Daewoo alliance wins the bid - and rival contender Alcatel suspects foul play. Intrepid private eye Charles investigates.

Dominique Manotti is a professor of nineteenth-century economic history in Paris. he is the author of a number of novels including Rough Trade (winner of the French Crime Writers Association Award) and Dead Horsemeat, both published in English by Arcadia Books. Dead horsemeat was shortlisted for the 2006 Duncan Lawrie International Dagger Award.

'Bleak, transgressive, sexy and quite literally unputdownable. They're so seedy, very, very French (in a good way), often very funny and so tightly plotted that you can read them in an evening. And Arcadia's translations have been brilliant. It's a joy...devouring such exuberant, taut and engrossing crime writing' - Bookseller 'The novel I liked most this year. Set in Le Sentier, the district of Paris where expensive clothes are made in sweatshops, it uses real events - the struggle by foreign workers in 1980 to get legal status - as the setting for an extraordinary vivid crime novel' - JOAN SMITH, Books of the Year, Independent, on Rough Trade 'Gets under the skin in a way that has rarely been so compelling, and certainly never sexier' -Cary Gee, Tribune. 'Seamlessly integrates a fine crime story with an equally convincing grip on the character on the northern landscape' -Judges of the CWA Duncan Lawrie International Dagger Award