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Swiss Vendetta    by Tracee de Hahn Amazon.com order for
Swiss Vendetta
by Tracee de Hahn
Order:  USA  Can
Minotaur, 2018 (2017)
Hardcover, Softcover, CD, e-Book
* *   Reviewed by Hilary Williamson

Tracee de Hahn's debut mystery, Swiss Vendetta, introduces Swiss-American police officer Agnes Lüthi in Lausanne, Switzerland, where she has just transferred from Financial Crimes to Violent Crimes, and is keen to prove herself. She is also still grieving the recent death of her beloved husband.

The setting for the murder is a terrible blizzard that effectively isolates the murder team and those they are investigating from the rest of the world. A young woman (a London auction house appraiser) was found dead (outside in frigid weather in an antique evening dress) on the lawn of the grand Château Vallotton, at the edge of Lac Léman. She had been stabbed.

The suspects include the aristocratic, uber wealthy Swiss Vallotton family who live in the chateau; their servants; the small girl, Mimi, whom they adopted; their dying, elderly neighbor, Vladimir Arsov; and an American history student, Nick Graves, working in the chateau library. Also on the scene are Agnes' ex-Financial Crimes colleague Robert Carnet and a helpful elderly local named Estanguet.

Swiss Vendetta is a well developed police procedural, with a resolute yet vulnerable lead, in an unusual setting and with quite a surprising resolution. This is a series that I hope to follow

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