The worlds of high-class lingerie and homicide are the somewhat uneasy bedfellows (oo-err!) in this debut novel by David Barrie set in Paris.
Franck Guerin is the one-time secret agent, temporarily transferred to the police department and tasked with clearing up an ever-lengthening series of murders - each involving a beautiful woman dressed only in an eye-wateringly expensive set of lingerie.
I enjoyed this novel as much for the author's obviously intimate knowledge of Paris (something which shines out of his descriptions of the city and the characters movements around it) as for the plot - although that's not to say the plot isn't enjoyable too. The identity of the murderer kept me guessing and the well-paced action kept my interest. All-in-all a good read. ( )

As a novel it benefits from a bit of reflection, and the fact that you are thrown into Guerin's life very much at the deep end jars, but by Timothy this is good. It's the sort of book that left on your desk after a lunchtime indulgence calls out to you, and you feel obliged to stifle its siren song in a briefcase or drawer (not at all connected to the titillating pseudo erotic novel cover at all) and hanker to revisit it. As crime fiction it's different, engaging, well written, and deserving of all the attention it can possibly get.

For full review please see: http://southlondonbook.blogspot.com/2009/10/wasp-waisted-david-barrie.html

This seems to be the author's debut novel and it promises very good things for the future. Franck Guerin is an interesting and attractive central character who, following the mysterious Corsican Incident (small clues to which are scattered throughout the book), has been suspended from the French counter-terrorism squad, the DST, and is now working for the Brigrade Criminelle in Paris. Like Rebus's Edinburgh, Guerin's Paris is very much a character and one in which ancient and modern live side by side, North African immigrants jostle up against the rich and privileged of avenue Montaigne. The murders are unusual and intriguing, the plot is well constructed and following the dénouement still hangs together well – you would be surprised how many crime novels fail at this final hurdle. This is an eminently engaging and readable novel – I read it in one sitting – and I do hope that there is more to come. ( )

Review from my blog
An intelligently written, tightly plotted detective story set in Paris. I do like a good detective yarn. Unfortunately many detective books are far from good. This book ticks a lot of the requirement boxes I look for when I'm selecting books. I like detective books that follow the detective almost exclusively; you walk in his footsteps, see what he sees, hear what he hears and match yourself against him with your deductive reasoning. This book never leaves the detective's side. So many detective books don't do this and you have to wade through chapter after chapter of scene changes following peripheral characters, sometimes even the killer, sometimes retreading the same ground with page after page of padded filler.
I was also impressed by how David Barrie managed to depict Paris. There is a city behind all the postcard views of Paris that we don't often get a flavour of in books and the author here is the guide that takes us there. I've read a few books set in Paris, the last was Louis Bayard's Black Tower, which featured one of history's first detectives, Eugene Francois Vidocq, but even that didn't really make you feel you were living there. I liked detective Franck Guerin. He's not flash, he's not hip, he's not on the make, he's just a straight down the line investigator, good at his job (although he's actually a disgraced spook on secondment), conscientious, a bit methodical but far from stupid.
I've got to say that I was as much lost at sea as Franck was amidst all the lingerie connoisseurs (who'd have thought there were such folk), models, photographers, artists, publishers and business people but the way we follow Franck's initiation into this region of the fashion industry greatly helped me find my way to dry land. Barrie's descriptions of the photographic clues, lingerie design and the models within them sometimes flirts with a mild eroticism that sometimes distracts both detective and reader.
I'd certainly be interested in reading any further books by Barrie and if they feature Franck Guerin well so much the better. Wasp-waisted is a surprisingly accomplished first novel. It deserves to find a wide readership. ( )

I wrote this, so I can scarely say anything objective about it. I've rated it as slightly better than average, as that's what I hope it is.
Here's what I was trying to do: devise a crime and an investigation that are intimately linked with the city in which it all unfolds (Paris); try to develop a gallery of strong secondary characters who were more than a match for the detective who carries the narrative; and to mull over what a dangerous thing beauty can be.
If you read it, please write a review - I'm curious to know whether I got anywhere close to my objectives.
For the moment, Wasp-Waisted is only generally available in Europe (via book stores and Amazon). However, the publisher's web site (www.waspwaisted.com) accepts orders for delivery anywhere in the world. ( )