The Chatelet Apprentice — Jean-Francois Parot

Adapted for television in France, the first of the Nicolas Le Floch mysteries tells the story of murder against the backdrop of the glittering court of Louis XV.

'Has all the twists, turns and surprises the genre demands' Independent on Sunday

It's France, 1761. Beyond the glittering court of Louis XV and Madame de Pompadour at Versailles, lies Paris, a capital in the grip of crime and immorality ... A police officer disappears and Nicolas Le Floch, a young recruit to the force, is instructed to find him. When unidentified human remains suddenly come to light, he seems to have a murder investigation on his hands. As the city descends into Carnival debauchery, Le Floch will need all his skill, courage and integrity to unravel a mystery which threatens to implicate the highest in the land. 

This is the first in a series of six historical crime novels which has sold in excess of 400,000 copies in French. The author brings eighteenth-century Paris vividly to life and the story features real-life characters Madame de Pompadour and Louis XV as well as engaging hero Nicolas le Floch.