William Steinert, un rico industrial alemán afincado en la Provenza, ha desaparecido sin dejar rastro; el comisario Michel de Palma asume el caso y viaja al delta del Ródano, donde coincide con las ceremonias de la misteriosa cofradía que pasea por las calles la efigie de una criatura del bestiario popular, la Tarasca. Pero la fiesta se ve interrumpida por el hallazgo del cadáver de Steinert, con marcas de garras y dientes enormes. Ante la aparición de otros cuerpos mutilados, todos de antiguos cofrades, de Palma se adentrará en un mundo de oscuras tramas inmobiliarias en el que la historia negra de la Francia de posguerra sigue estando todavía muy presente.

This is the investigation of a series of murders taking place in Provence, in the south of France.
The "Baron", a policeman, is convalescing from a previous case and gets involved in looking into the murder of a local millionaire. This then starts to connect to further murders and secrets and local feelings and become very tangled. There is also supposedly some monster in the marsh that is involved.
Interesting because it's showing an area that I know nothing about and a police system I've never read about, but the characters weren't terribly involving. ( )

William Steinert, un rico industrial alemán afincado en la Provenza, ha desaparecido sin dejar rastro; el comisario Michel de Palma asume el caso y viaja al delta del Ródano, donde coincide con las ceremonias de la misteriosa Cofradía que pasea por las calles la efigie de una criatura del bestiario popular. Pero la fiesta se ve interrumpida por el hallazgo del cadáver de Steiner, con marcas de garras y dientes enormes.

Ante la aparición de otros cuerpos mutilados, todos de antiguos cofrades, de Palma se adentrará en un mundo de oscuras tramas inmobiliarias en el que la historia negra de la Francia de posguerra sigue presente.

http://shawjonathan.wordpress.com/2010/04/08/betebeast-duof-the-maraiscamargue/

I gave up on this just before page 100. It’s a murder mystery, and very little had happened by the time I parted company from it – the body of an extremely rich man who has been missing for a fortnight or so has finally been found in a swamp, so it feels as if the story might be about to start. An unnamed man who is probably a psychopathic serial killer has made a couple of lacklustre appearances. There’s a cop with enough idiosyncrasies to make him interesting, a romance that will probably stay unconsummated, and a beautiful, rich widow with something she’s not telling. There are English-speaking tourists, wandering with their cameras through places where evil lurks. Oh, and there are hints that the evil might be in some way occult. In other words, it’s familiar territory, and there evidently wasn’t enough in it to engage this reader.

Commandant Michel de Palma may be the French reading public’s equivalent of John Rebus, but he couldn’t keep me reading past page 98. ( )

Knights of the Tarasque, a mythic beast in the French middle age. Poetic and scary story ! Original novel !
De Palma is a very attracting character ! ( )