Books by Mark Hebden

In his beloved Burgundy, Chief Inspector Pel finds himself incensed by interference from Paris, but it isn't the descent of rival policemen that makes Pel's blood boil - crimes are being committed by violent gangs from Paris and Marseilles.

Pel's life as a contented newlywed is put on hold as he finds himself investigating the deaths of a series of young women, who have been strangled and left with macabre messages next to them. Pel's investigations lead him to the city's student community, and into a deadly game of cat and mouse.

Chief Inspector Pel's honeymoon with his new wife Genevieve is disrupted when a local taxi driver is murdered on their first night. More puzzling is his attempt to reach Pel before the brutal killing and his message is one of murder, arson and smuggling. Can Pel break the silence surrounding the Islanders, and catch the killer?

Pel's personal life is going far from smoothly, as he discovers himself to be the target of a letter-bomb sent by an old enemy - aside from the obvious danger, this is yet another obstacle to his plans to marry Madame Faivre-Perret. Can Pel keep his life, his love and his career by solving the murder mysteries?

When five murders disturb his sleepy Burgundian city on Bastille night, Chief Inspector Evariste Clovis Desire Pel has his work cut out for him. A terrorist group is at work and with the President due to make an official visit in a few weeks' time, the pressure is on to uncover them and stop them in their tracks.

A well-known fraudster is found dead in an alleyway - could gang rivalry be to blame? And who is behind a series of attacks targeting gay men in the town? On top of all this, a wealthy local businessman, Francois Rensselaer, disappears - but oddly, none of his family seem very bothered about it. It's down to Pel to unravel the mystery.

A series of thefts of priceless treasures from churches and chateaux has landed on Inspector Pel's desk, and matters take a darker turn when a suspicious death is confirmed as murder. The case leads Pel from Paris to Scotland Yard and a climax involving the Tour de France cycle race.

A student's mysterious death and the discovery of a corpse in the boot of a car start to uncover a fledgling drug ring operating within the university of Inspector Pel's Burgundian city. More murders follow and the trail leads Pel to Innsbruck, where the soignee mistress of a professor turns out to be rather more than she seems.

Inspector Evariste Clovis Desire Pel did not need another murder case added to his already Herculean workload, especially not this ghoulish business of a mutilated, headless corpse, the anonymous victim of a desperate and determined killer. Yet, if the murder was so deliberate, so well-planned, why was the identity of the dead man obscured?

Deep in the Burgundy countryside, a murder case is perplexing Inspector Pel. There are some obvious suspects, yet the clothes of none of them show any signs of blood. And what were the tensions that must have torn at this family? It's only when a second murder takes place that the method of the first becomes startlingly clear.