PEL AND THE MISSING PERSONS

A series of near-unsolvable cases keep Burgundy's Chief Inspector Pel busy even as he tries to deal with the heavy-handed attempts of newly returned, politically connected Detective Inspector Goriot to take over his department (Pel and the Predators, etc.). Too many missing persons; the identity search for an elderly man found dead on the highway (his injuries inconsistent with auto accident); a bomb at the airport that inadvertently caused the death of a police officer; floating rumors of corruption about Pel's warmly regarded Inspector Darcy; the missing owner of a home for geriatrics; a series of hit-run robberies by a gang the press have christened the Tuaregs; and more—all in a welter of crisscrossing threads that, at one point, touch Pel's unflappable wife Genevieve. Pel and his team triumph, as always, in a police procedural occasionally overloaded with technical detail but kept engrossing with fast-paced happenings and vivacious characters. Another solid job from an ever-reliable author.