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To Die in Provence
by Norman Bogner
Product Group: Book
Publisher: Robert Hale Ltd (1999-06-25)
ISBN: 0709064209
EAN: 9780709064206
Hardcover: 382 pages
SKU: B870-1159
Condition: As New
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Customer Reviews
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Disgusted and disappointed
Rating  (3)
Date: 1999-06-26
I started this book because the inside cover sounded interesting. After I started reading To Die in Provence I soon became horrified. I thought that several of the scenes were unnecessary and crude. Did the author really need to explain in graphic detail how Boy and Maddie went about killing Louise? I thought the last few chapters of the book were great. The ending left me feeling very satisfied and the book had a suspensful atmosphere to it that kept me reading even if I found some of the scenes offensive. Over all I think this book was for the type of reader who enjoys reading horror/thriller novels. This book is not a mild murder mystery for the inquisitive reader.
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Very good - with a stronger ending could have been 5 crowns
Rating  (4)
Date: 1999-05-22
An excellent book, gripping from the start. Details of crime could have been a bit more in depth, satisfy those blood thirsty readers, but all in all an excellent read
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Compelling, charming, with European flair
Rating  (5)
Date: 1999-03-23
The novel is a charming, compelling sexual/psychological thriller with European flair. It is set in Aix-en-Provence with lots of local color and texture, including French gastronomy, right down to the kitchen smells. In the opening chapter, Provence homicide detective Michel Danton is trying to get himself back to duty and off the medical furlough and get over being dumped by Yvette, his live-in girlfriend and tabloid TV reporter in her own right. Circumstances, including a couple of gruesome homicides, bring him together with Jennifer Bowen, a young, attractive American art history prof who is there doing field work. Arrangements for her research stipend are a bit unusual, but sufficient for her purposes. Plane ticket and living expenses were paid by Mr. & Mrs. Adam Gold, Los Angeles TV producer, in return for her keeping an eye on their rebellious daughter Maddie. The problem is that tarty Maddie has a trouble-making has brought along her friend, "Boy". As the story unwinds, he is revealed as a cunning psychopath. Can unhorsed Det. Danton climb back into the saddle and get his man? Veteran storyteller Norman Bogner spins a fascinating tale, building hero Michel Danton and heroine Jennifer Bowen from flesh, sinew, intellect and emotion, and providing tantalizing peeks into the minds of rebellious Maddie and psychopathic "Boy." Francophile and Francophone Norman Bogner has an eye for the landscape around the French Riviera and a good ear for the tone, rhythm of the language and the nuances of Gaelic wit. It made me wish I had stayed longer when motoring through in 1971.
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Spellbinding!
Rating (4)
Date: 1999-02-04
This is a crime story you just can't put down. Technically superb! This quick paced novel keeps one tujning pages. The characters are well developed and the reader soon becomes intimately aquainted with each of their motivations.NOT a book for the faint of heart. It includes graphic descriptions of violent acts and lewd sexual acts.
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A frightening, tightly-paced thriller
Rating (5)
Date: 1998-08-24
Provence is more generally associated with Impressionist scenery, glorious food and wine, and escapism for expatriates of all nationalities, rather than murder. But Norman Bogner changes all that in his gruesome but entertaining tale of mayhem set in this most picturesque region of France.A vicious young serial killer is loose in Provence, the companion of Maddie, a wealthy, rebellious young American girl whose father is one of America's most successful TV producers. The sinister 'Boy' Boynton has the face of an angel but is a cold-blooded psychopath, the result of a hellish childhood where he was sexually abused and tortured by the adults in his life. Maddie is supposedly studying French in Aix-en-Provence under the eye of her hired tutor Jennifer Bowen, but she and Boy are secretly embarking on a horrifying murder spree. Michel Danton is a local police detective who is trying to sort all the killings out. As he gets closer to the truth, his life and those around him are increasingly at risk.
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