Guest Blog--"Death in the Truffle Wood" by Pierre Magnan

On my most recent stab into crime, I picked up a new book published in 2007. It is written by French author Pierre Magnan and very recently was translated into English by Patricia Clancy. Since I am currently living in Paris, it seemed like a natural choice. Death in the Truffle Wood was originally published in 1978. Now I remember 1978 very well. However, this novel feels as if it was written in rural France many years earlier than that. It felt as if it was not just a different culture and country but a whole different time period. Is it just that rural France is stuck in another century? Well, I guess that doesn’t quite work because this is a different century. When I checked out truffles online I discovered that truffles are still apparently dug up by pigs. And are a luxury most of us cannot afford. However, despite the references to the Resistance in WW II and tractors in the fields this still felt otherworldly to me and a little as if I was reading about the 19th century. If you are into witches and superstition this might be a book you would enjoy. At least the people in this novel took murder very seriously and felt grief for the loss of the victims.