Passion Fruit

Married on Saturday, Therese had dumped her husband, a ramrod-straight, squeaky-clean councillor, and returned, frosty-faced and unapproachable, to her own home and bed in Paris's Belleville quarter on Monday morning. The first thing she did after this was to go to her caravan, the tool of her trade - she was a fortune teller - and clear it out. Seconds later persons unknown torched it, and the person caught inside was incinerated. At about the same time, the eminent, if jilted, husband was found dead at the bottom of the stairwell of his Paris luxury apartment, in stockinged feet.

Therese's brother, Benjamin Malaussene, a scapegoat by calling, packed his bag and waited for the police to haul him off on suspicion - it was no secret that Benjamin's new brother-in-law was his least favourite man. So there were a number of leading questions that needed answering, not to mention the one of where Therese had spent last night before floating in looking blissful and undoubtedly now pregnant. As it was Therese whom the police arrested on suspicion of murder, it was vital to establish this point. Family and friends closed ranks to protect the innocent and eventually the culprits came to light.

Readers of Daniel Pennac novels will find here all the elements of the author's wittily inventive plotting that characterise his fiction.