REVIEWED BY WALTER ALBERT:         


J. ROBERT JANES – Sandman. Soho, US, hardcover, 1996; paperback, 1998. First published in the UK by Constable, hardcover, 1996.

   The sixth in a series of novels set in occupied Paris (1943) and featuring an unlikely pair of investigators who have become friends, Louis St. Cyr of the French Sûreté, and Hermann Kohler of the German Gestapo. They investigate what are thought of as “ordinary” crimes (not connected to the ongoing occupation), which in this case is the series of rapes and murders of schoolgirls by a serial killer called the “Sandman.”

   Within the confines of the unusual situation, the novel follows a fairly conventional path, with incompetent superiors who threaten to impede the investigation by the two dogged, competent detectives.

   The distinction of the book is in its setting, a cold winter in occupied Paris, where the weather and the occupation have settled into the bones and the soul, and the believable characterizations. This is definitely a series to which I will want to return.

       The St. Cyr and Kohler series —

1. Mayhem (1992)
2. Carousel (1992)
3. Kaleidoscope (1993)

4. Salamander (1994)
5. Mannequin (1994)
6. Sandman (1994)
7. Stonekiller (1995)
8. Dollmaker (1995)

9. Gypsy (1997)
10. Madrigal (1999)
11. Beekeeper (2001)
12. Flykiller (2002)

13. Bellringer (2012)
14. Tapestry (2013)
15. Carnival (2014)

16. Clandestine (2015)