The Fleur de Sel Murders

Brittany Mystery Series, Book 3

By: Jean-Luc Bannalec

Narrated by: Graham Halstead

The old salt farmers have always said that the violet scent of the Fleur de Sel at harvest time on the salt marshes of the Guerande Peninsula has been known to cause hallucinations. Commissaire Dupin also starts to believe this when he's attacked out of the blue in the salt works.

He had actually been looking forward to escaping his endless paperwork and taking a trip to the "white country" between the raging Atlantic Ocean and idyllic rivers. But when he starts snooping around mysterious barrels on behalf of Lilou Breval, a journalist friend, he finds himself unexpectedly under attack. The offender remains a mystery, and a short time later, Breval disappears without a trace. It is thanks to his secretary Nolwenn and the ambition of the prefect that Dupin is assigned to the case. But he won't be working alone, because Sylvaine Rose is the investigator responsible for the department - and she lives up to her name....

What's going on in the salt works? Dupin and Rose search feverishly for clues and stumble upon false alibis, massive conflicts of interest, personal feuds - and ancient Breton legends.

©2012 Verlag Kiepenheuer & Witsch, Cologne/Germany; Translation copyright 2017 by Sorcha McDonagh (P)2019 Tantor

Prepare to fall in love!

With beautiful french landscapes. With delicious french food.
And with the sexy Frenchman, George’s Dupin handsomely narrated by Graham Halstead.
Throw in an intriguing mystery.
Incroyable!❤️🇫🇷🧂. It’s a trip to France you won’t easily forget! I’ve listened to it five times already and am ready for more.

why change voice actors?

this guy is fine. he's American and while not bad it's not as enjoyable as the previous voice actor.

Well done!

thriller, suspense, murder, murder-investigation, law-enforcement, procedural, friction, friendship, colleagues, saltmarsh, Brittany, food, coastal, sly-humor, attempted-murder, journalist*****

This one literally starts out with a bang. While snooping around a salt marsh on the advice of a journalist he trusts, Dupin gets seriously shot at in an area of no cell service. He is out of his jurisdiction but isn't going to tolerate getting bumped off the case by the appropriate commissaire. So they form a fractious alliance amid lying suspects, a couple of murders, and... a kangaroo? Great police work in an inhospitable area despite a shoulder wound and personal issues. Now I want lamb terrine!
I really enjoyed the book, I have no idea whether the translation was good or bad, and this is the audio (which saved me from feeble pronunciations). Translation copyright 2017 by Sorcha McDonagh. This is the best I can do to recognize the gift of translation to this English only speaker.
On the other hand, while voice actor Graham Halstead is great at differing personalities (and probably decent French), it seems just too weird having a clearly American accent for all of these French Bretons.

Narrator

What a poor choice after Jean Brassard. Interesting story made dull by narrator. Too bad he narrates the next one in the series.

Disappointed by the choice of narrator

The selection of an American actor to narrate a French story is distracting and disappointing.

Bad new narrator

Excellent writing barely makes up for the narrator. Louise Penny made a bad choice for her new narrator, but in that case she had to make a change because her first excellent narrator died. I hope Bannalec’s first narrator is alive and well. But if he is, they should have kept him on for this series.

Love this French Mystery Series!

This is my third book in this series. I adored the first two books, and I loved this story, but, unfortunately, not the narrator, who is not French like the reader of the first two books. PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE bring back the original reader, who made the first two books magical and made me feel as though I were truly in Brittany enjoying a great adventure.

At times it felt as if I were listening to a documentary

Salt marshes. Yes, you will know more about salt marshes than you may actually have wanted to before the first few chapters are over. After a brief pause in my listening, I rejoined the story and was confused for a few minutes thinking I had somehow connected to an explanatory introduction to the salt marsh background. I can’t really blame the narrator, he did his best with a tedious script. I did enjoy the first book and the first narrator much more. I have lost interest in the sameness of the series. Not my cup of tea ... or expresso.

Quaint mystery

Pleasant mystery set in an often overlooked part of France. I enjoy learning about Britany and by extension Breton culture through reading these stories.