The Dying Minutes (Inspector Daniel Jacquot)

Keynote: The seventh Inspector Daniel Jacquot novel is set once again in Marseilles, the city about which Martin O'Brien writes so seductively. When an old friend dies and leaves Jacquot afishing boat, all kinds of secrets and crimes come back to haunt him.

Key Features

• Wonderful central character and French atmosphere
• In the mould of Donna Leon

About the Book: The Dying Minutes

In 1972 a gold bullion convoy is hijacked in Marseilles. The security trucks and hijackersare swiftly rounded up, but a ton of gold has disappeared.

More than twenty years later, Daniel Jacquot receives an unexpected gift from an oldfisherman. At the same time, a Marseilles lawyer called Claude Dupont receives an equallyunexpected gift from a dying gangland boss.

Both gifts point the way to the missing gold and pit Jacquot and Dupont against thePolineaux and Duclos familles, two of the oldest and most feared crime syndicates on theCote d'Azur.

When the Marseilles police become involved following a series of gruesome murders, theinvestigation is headed by Chief Inspector Isabelle Cassier. An old friend and sometimelover of Jacquot's, Isabelle discovers that the years haven't lessened her longing for themaverick Marseilles cop, and that her feelings for him are far from professional.

Together they embark on a cut-throat hunt for the gold, with hit-men from the Polineauxand Duclos clans hot on their heels. But after nearly thirty years, is the gold still there?And if it is, who will get to it first?

About the Author: Martin O'Brien

Martin O'Brien was educated at The Oratory School and Hertford College, Oxford. He wasTravel Editor at British Vogue in the 1970s and has written for a number of internationalpublications. He is the author of six previous Jacquot novels and lives with his wife anddaughters near Cirencester in Gloucestershire.