I have a bad habit of treating myself to things just before my birthday or Christmas. it drives family and friends mad! This year, I did it again. I treated myself to Merle by Angela Wren shortly beofre Christmas and read it immediately!
The Blurb
Jacques Forêt, a former gendarme turned investigator, delves into the murky world of commercial sabotage – a place where people lie and misrepresent, and where information is traded and used as a threat.
The Vaux organisation is losing contracts and money, and Jacques is asked to undertake an internal investigation. As he works through the complexity of all the evidence, he finds more than he bargained for, and his own life is threatened.
When a body of a woman is found, it appears to be suicide. But as the investigation takes another turn, Jacques suspects there is more to it.
Who is behind it all…and why? Will Jacques find the answer before another person ends up dead?
The Review
Merle is the second novel in the Jacques Foret Mystery series from the pen of author Angela Wren. I had read the first book in the series and was looking forward to reading this book.
The main character Jacques Foret has now left the police force and taken up employment as a private investigator. As he is no longer a member of the police, Jacques does not have ready access to some of the information he had previously.
In Merle, Jacques is appointed to carry out an internal investigation within a company, Vaux, that is losing money and contracts. His life is further complicated by his ongoing romance with Beth.
There are several viable suspects who have the expertise to conduct the commercial sabotage that has occurred but when events become threatening, a body is found and then Jacques himself is in danger. In the novel, Merle, the reader is treated to a taut, complex novel that is as exciting as it is entertaining. I thoroghly enjoyed it and highly recommend to those who enjoy a good crime thriller.
The Author
I’m an actor and director at a small theatre a few miles from where I live in the county of Yorkshire in the UK. I did work as a project and business change manager – very pressured and very demanding – but I managed to escape and now I write books.
I’ve always loved stories and story telling so it seemed a natural progression, to me, to try my hand at writing and I started with short stories. My first published story was included in an anthology, which was put together by the magazine ‘Ireland’s Own’ in 2011. I also contribute to the Miss Moonshine anthologies of feel-good stories.
I particularly enjoy the challenge of plotting and planning different genres of work. My short stories vary between contemporary romance, memoir, mystery and historical. I also write comic flash-fiction and have drafted two one-act plays that have been recorded for local radio.
My full-length stories are set in France where I like to spend as much time as possible each year. Currently, I'm working on the follow-up stories in my Jacques Forêt series of novels and I continue to write my blog every week where you can find lots of info about France, books, book reviews and author interviews.