The Curse of the Windy Grange

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I thought I understood, of course. I also tried to picture the walkers making their way from the dusty path through the thorny grass, all weary and thirsty from the heat. White cliffs left and right. Each step through the blazing heat uses up energy and then, suddenly, the high walls of the farmhouse appear out of nowhere. The weather-beaten trees cast a shadow, a resinous smell hovers in the air and the pinecones are crackling and breaking in the searing temperatures. There’s sure to be someone here who can refill their water bottles. They gradually approach the lizard-infested walls. Birds of prey are circling in the sky – buzzards perhaps. One, two … wow that’s unusual to see so many in this scorching heat. Maybe there’s a dead animal around? That’s probably what they were thinking – if anything at all. Most people don’t automatically think of dead bodies …

The body of a social drop-out is found at a remote, windy grange in the south of France. Constable Monsieur Lasalle takes on the job of finding out what happened. While he delves deeper and deeper into the grange’s murky past, more events unfold that he can’t make head or tail of. What does the artist Eva Dunkelwald and author Nicolas Morrisant have to do with the case? And who is the woman on the photo that Lasalle finds at the grange?