A young model is found dead in a luxury hotel in Paris. A stunning photo of the scene features on the cover of the country's top-selling scandal sheet. It was delivered before the police found the body. In a city obsessed with images of perfection, the murderer's artistic talents are the object of much admiration. It's Franck Guerin's first criminal case. Used to the murky world of national security, he has to learn to play by the rules. Not so easy when your only clue is the lingerie in which the victim was draped. The fashion trail takes him into a universe of desire, deceit, beauty and profit. As the victims mount and the images roll in, Franck has to train his eye to spot the killer's signature. Not to mention whoever is collecting photos of him... The first of the Franck Guerin novels. Original, stylish and tightly-plotted, Wasp-Waisted recounts a murder enquiry born of a fatal encounter between fashion, art, business and desire.

A sly and stylish crime novel set in Paris, Night-Scented charts a course from the dizzying luxury of the city's fashion houses to the unseen corners where its homeless use their wits to survive. An ambitious and acerbic young woman launches Arbaud, an upstart fashion house. An ascetic perfumer joins her, intent on creating a scent that will mark the apogee of his career. The aristocratic head of one of the pillars of the Paris fashion scene searches for a means to shore up her crumbling empire. An enigmatic homeless man wanders the banks of the Seine, utterly destitute but utterly free. And then the killings begin. A car is driven off a country road by a stolen truck. An elegant businessman is executed backstage at a fashion show. Both were key investors in Arbaud. The world of luxury brands, frivolous handmaid to the pampered and privileged, seems to be flexing its claws. Night-Scented sees the return of Franck Guerin, the unwilling hero of David Barrie's previous mystery Wasp-Waisted. A noxious cocktail of jealous rivalry and unbridled ambition awaits him, with too many suspects and too little proof. Life is not getting any easier. Or death, for that matter.

Ballet is a demanding art. But it is not supposed to be a deadly one. When one of the leading ballerinas of the Paris Opera Ballet is found strangled, it is a hard blow for the company. When dark secrets are found in her recent past, its very future is threatened. When others are killed in the same way, it begins to looks as if a curse has fallen upon the Opera and its tight-knit community of dancers. When the case lands on the desk of captain Franck Guerin of the city's Major Crimes Unit, he finds himself drawn into a world far removed from his own. Not a comfortable place to be when faced with a nimble-footed killer who can dance rings around him. David Barrie's third novel featuring captain Franck Guerin follows firmly in the footsteps of its a remarkable cast of characters; an intimate knowledge of the social geography of Paris; and a finely-wrought plot that would make a Swiss watchmaker proud.

None of it makes any sense. A savage attack in the city's most elegant neighbourhood. A Sorbonne professor dating a hedge fund manager. A state-backed bank conspiring to promote false arrests. A serial seductress who'll lie about everything, but not about love. A millionaire trader who sleeps in flea-ridden hotels. A woman in a haute couture dress who'd rather have an eighteenth-century book than a Cartier bracelet. A murder suspect given to speculating about his own guilt. Franck Guerin of the Brigade Criminelle has a dead woman on his hands, slain minutes after she walked out on her lover. And a nagging suspicion that he'll never solve the crime until he learns to read the hearts of those whose lives touched hers. Which is a lot to ask of a man who has a hard job deciphering his own. The fourth Franck Guerin novel from David Barrie demonstrates once more the author's mastery of noir chic.

In Paris, intellectuals are rock stars. Jean-Jacques Marsay is no exception, prized for his writings and adored for his public appearances. His wife, a beautiful and talented actress, is no less famous. They live a charmed life. Not so Virginie Desmoulins, found strapped to her bed and drained of her blood. She had been working closely with Marsay, editing his latest book. When last seen alive she was in an expensive restaurant, dining tête-à-tête with his wife. She is the first of their circle to die. Others will follow. Handling the investigation, Franck Guerin of the Brigade Criminelle unearths a host of hidden truths, becoming the custodian of the couple's secrets. Which ought to worry him. That is the one thing all the victims had in common. The fifth Franck Guerin novel from David Barrie demonstrates what a dangerous thing the truth can be.

Everybody hates Bruno Kahn. Except for those who love him. The smoothest of operators, he has wormed his way into one of the richest families in Paris, subjugating its elderly patriarch with his dark arts. The only remaining obstacle on his path is his victim's daughter, who will stop at nothing to free her father from Kahn's clutches. Including paying an unscrupulous freelance photographer to dog his footsteps and discover what he gets up to when no one is looking. What the photographer found out, nobody knows. He didn't manage to file his report before his battered corpse was found in a quiet passageway. So now it's up to Franck Guerin of the Brigade Criminelle to decide whether Kahn is simply the most charming of men or a silver-tongued devil. Or whether more sinister forces are at work that menace not just one family's cossetted existence but the very fabric of the nation. A worthy addition to the NOIR CHIC collection of sly and sophisticated tales of crime. Paris is known for many fashion houses; exquisite fragrances; luxury hotels. It's a city with high standards, and won't let them down for anyone - murderers included.