Patrick de Courvoisier Books in Order

Patrick de Courvoisier is not your usual private investigator.

An Englishman with a background in British intelligence, he has reinvented himself on the French Riviera as a discreet fixer living aboard Les Trois Soeurs, a converted French gunboat moored in the old port of Cannes. Locals know him as Le Limier, the hound, the man you approach when you have a serious problem you would rather not take to the police. His constant companion is Oscar, a French bulldog whose grumpy presence underlines that Patrick is trying to live a quieter life, even if trouble keeps finding him.

In The Case of the Black Pearl, that trouble arrives in the shape of Camille, who hires him to find her missing half sister, film star Angele Valette, and a priceless black pearl tied to the launch of a movie during the Cannes Film Festival. The search takes Patrick from red carpet parties to oligarch owned yachts and shady backrooms, and it is not long before a body turns up on his own boat. The book sets the tone for the series, where glamour and danger are always a step apart.

The second novel, The Case of the Missing Madonna, moves Patrick just off the coast to the island monastery of Saint Honorat. The monks there are guardians of a hidden Fragonard Madonna that has quietly sat in their vaults for years, admired by visiting royalty but never shown in public. When the painting disappears, the abbot asks Patrick to retrieve it without publicity. At the same time an old enemy from his intelligence days arrives in Cannes on the trail of another stolen artwork, and the two investigations tangle into a story of wartime secrets and reputations that powerful people will do anything to protect.

Across the books, the Riviera setting is a major part of the appeal. Anderson gives you harbours packed with superyachts, narrow old town lanes, island monasteries and the buzz of festival crowds, but she always sets that sunshine against the shadows that follow money and power. The violence is real and the stakes can be high, yet the tone is closer to a stylish thriller than to the grimmer end of Tartan Noir.

Patrick himself carries the scars of his former life, both physical and emotional. He enjoys good food, good wine and lazy days at sea, but once he commits to a client he is dogged in seeing a job through, even when it puts him in conflict with his old employers. Each novel stands alone, yet hints about his past build from book to book, rewarding readers who follow the series.

If you like crime stories where a worldly fixer moves between jet set luxury and the seedier edges of a famous resort, with puzzles, betrayals and action along the way, the Patrick de Courvoisier novels are a natural complement to Anderson's darker, Scotland based work.