It’s high summer and the Nice Jazz Festival, at which Captain Paul Darac’s group is playing, is just a few days away. That’s the good news.

The bad is that his on-off love affair with fellow officer Frankie, appears to be off for good: her feelings have cooled. So Darac has much on his mind as the team is called to the death of an elderly man at St-Laurent rail station. The victim is identified as hard-bitten ex-comedy star Ambroise Paillaud, born locally and only recently returned to the area.

Intrigue: Darac learns that the village to which Paillaud retired had pitilessly expelled his family when he was a boy. More intriguing still, his will reveals that he left his vast fortune to the village.

Gradually, Darac will untie a knot of greed, corruption, blackmail and murder which exposes Paillaud’s true plan, and which brings other malign forces to the surface.