France, October, 1934. Germany’s Deputy Minister of Finance falls to his death from the balcony of his hotel room in an apparent suicide. He is the fourth prominent German to meet a violent death within the jurisdiction of the Metropolitan Police in the last three months.
The same evening, the patriarch of France’s wealthiest banking family dies in his sleep, the unfortunate victim of an accidental gas leak.
Both cases are assigned to the Major Crimes Bureau with instructions to resolve the official inquiries as quickly and discreetly as possible. A simple matter. All Chief Inspector Gambrelli has to do is sign the preliminary reports: a suicide and an accident.
Gambrelli hesitates. Nothing is ever as simple as it seems.