Autumn, All The Cats Return

Autumn, All The Cats Return (Murder Mystery)

“An Inspector Sebag Mystery”

By Philippe Georget

Europa Editions www.europaeditions.com

ISBN #9781609452261

Price $18.00

432 Pages

Rating 5-Stars

“Brilliant writing, and provocative characters you won’t forget.”

An old man in his seventies is discovered in his apartment, shot in the head, handcuffed and tied to a chair. It was an execution style killing, and on the door were the letters OAS – the Algerian Organization Army Secret from the French-Algerian wars in the 1960s. Lt. Giles Sebag and his partner Jacques Molino, from the Perpignan, France, police department on the Mediterranean  are assigned the case, but when a second murder victim is found with the OAS written on the scene, Superintendent Castello forms a team to investigate, fearing someone may be killing old French fighters from the Algerian war.

This was a deep mystery involving something that happened fifty years before when Algeria fought for their independence from France. French and Spanish citizens, who had made their home in Algeria, took up arms against the Arabs and French soldiers. Although I did not fully understand the history of the Algerian war, I was in France during the period just following it, and knew there was still a problem. A lot of people had died, and there was still a lot of hatred among the French against their own country for being forced out of Algeria. The mystery does go into more detail about that period, but we don’t learn who the killer is, or why he’s killing certain men from that period, until the end of the story.

The author writes in a smooth, flowing style that makes this 432-page novel read more like a 200-page quick read. The writing is brilliant, and the characters are well drawn and provocative. This was a page-turner, and hard to put down till the last page. Highly recommended for readers who love a good mystery.

Tom Johnson

Detective Mystery Stories