Art permeates the atmosphere of this particular establishment, and Pierre-Louis Jennec ran it with clockwork precision for decades.
Or maybe it was because they were looking for the untouched, the simple, the unspoiled, and here they found the agricultural and rural, the old customs and festivals, and because they had an unbretonic tendency to be drawn towards anything wonderful or mystical.Īll these years later, the Central’s history has become a prime selling point to tourists. They certainly also came because Monet had been working on Belle Ile for a number of years and you could just about see Belle Ile from the mouth of the Aven. There were of course many things that drew the artists to Brittany and Pont-Aven…There was the ever enchanting landscape with its traces of the mysterious eras of menhirs and dolmens, hints of the land of the druids, great legends and epics. Pennec’s grandmother saw it as her mission to help and house the artists, and the colony became the Pont-Aven School of painting. A full-blown artist colony developed in the town. Marie-Jeanne Pennec loved art and she made the hotel available to the many painters, Gauguin included, who came to Pont-Aven.
A Breton institution, the Central dates back to the late 1800’s, when Pennec’s grandmother founded it. So when Pennec is found stabbed to death in his own hotel kitchen, it’s big local news. Few are more well-known than Pierre-Louis Pennec, the 91-year-old owner of the Central Hotel in the neighboring village of Pont-Aven. It’s a part of France rich in history and natural splendor but where everyone seems to know everyone else. Dupin has lived in Paris his entire life, but due to “certain disputes (as the internal memos put it)”, he has been transferred to a region his superiors consider the sticks. If Dupin reminds you of Georges Simenon’s Inspector Maigret, it may be because Dupin seems a man of routine like Maigret and the Amiral is an important location in Simenon’s novel The Yellow Dog. He’s enjoying his coffee and croissants, reading his newspaper. In the Amiral Hotel sits a detective making his debut in fiction – Commissaire Dupin. We’re in the lovely town of Concarneau, along the northwest coast of France. This is what I was looking for when I picked up Jean-Luc Bannalec’s Death in Brittany, and overall, reading the book gave me what I wanted. Procedurals often make for great armchair traveling, as every mystery devotee knows: what is more fun than diving into a mystery set in a place you’ve always wanted to visit but never have? Besides the pleasure of the puzzle, you submerge yourself in an environment, a culture. But every now and then, I get the craving for a procedural, and at the same time, I wonder what locale to explore through the story. Speaking broadly, I read a lot of crime fiction from the criminal’s point of view. When it comes to crime, I read noir stuff primarily.
©2015 Jean-Luc Bannalec (P)2016 Blackstone Audio, Inc.Death in Brittany by Jean-Luc Bannalec marks the debut of the internationally best-selling procuedural series featuring the coffee-loving Commissaire Georges Dupin who's just relocated from Paris to a quaint coastal town (available June 30, 2015). As he delves further into the lives of the victim and the suspects, he uncovers a web of secrecy and silence that belies the village's quaint image.Ī delectable mystery, Death in Brittany transports listeners to the French coast, where you can practically smell the sea air and taste the perfectly cooked steak-frites. An obstinate detective whose unconventional methods include good food, good wine, and taking in plenty of sea air, Dupin finds his case further complicated when ongoing incidents compound the mystery. Dupin and his team identify five principal suspects, including a rising political star, a longtime friend of the victim, and a wealthy art historian. The legendary 91-year-old hotelier Pierre-Louis Pennec, owner of the Central Hotel, has been found dead.Ī picture-perfect seaside village that played host to Gauguin in the 19th century, Pont-Aven is at the height of its tourist season and is immediately thrown into an uproar.
The local village of Pont-Aven - a sleepy community by the sea where everyone knows one other and nothing much seems to happen - is in shock. Commissaire Georges Dupin, a Parisian-born caffeine junkie recently relocated from the glamour of Paris to the remote (if picturesque) Breton coast, is not happy when he is dragged from his morning croissant and coffee to the scene of a curious murder.