A LEGEND AS ANCIENT AS THE DOLMEN ITSELF HAS CALLED UPON THE VILLAGE OF GRENO. THE ANKOU RIDES ONCE MORE IN BRITTANY, BUT WHO IS BEHIND THE MASK, AND WHOSE SOUL WILL BE CLAIMED?
Doctor David Trevelyan, professor of Cornish and Breton folklore, is woken in the middle of the night by the hammering of hooves and grinding of cartwheels outside his bedroom window. But when he looks outside, down to where he should see the dolmen - that timeless stone monument - softly growing in the moonlight, his surprise turns to terror...
He recognises the figure standing on a cart drawn by a black horse; draped in black, with a skull for a face, and carrying a curved scythe. There's no doubt about it. Someone disguised as The Ankou, the Grim Reaper of Breton mythology, is terrorising him. The next time the Ankou calls, tragedy is narrowly averted, and Rowan Trevelyan insists his father call the police. But the professor stubbornly refuses. He has a secret to hide and doesn't want gendarmes poking their noses into his past. The matter needs to be dealt with discreetly by a private investigator.
Enter Oscar Tremont, Investigator of the Strange and Inexplicable...
But when murder strikes Greno, there is no avoiding the intervention of the Gendarmerie Nationale. Will Oscar Tremont be able to carry out his investigation without treading on their toes? Will he crack the case before they do and unmask the Ankou?
DEAD ON THE DOLMEN is the first mystery novel featuring Oscar Tremont, Investigator of the Strange and Inexplicable, hailed by one reviewer as a "modern-day Sherlock Holmes" and a "mystery-solving maniac" and by another as "a little bit of Poirot, a little bit of Sherlock, and perhaps a pinch of Shaggy from Scooby-Doo".
- FAIR-PLAY MYSTERY
- PRIVATE INVESTIGATOR
- CLUES AND RED HERRINGS
- MYSTERY IN BRITTANY
- CELTIC FOLKLORE
What the reviewers say about Oscar Tremont: "OSCAR TREMONT IS A CLEVER, CUNNING INVESTIGATOR who would rather solve an interesting mystery than get paid for a boring one, much to his wife's consternation. The characters and situations are fun, quirky, and will leave you clamoring for more. Oscar Tremont is a perfect addition to that club of literary super-sleuths that includes C. Auguste Dupin and Sherlock Holmes."
- Jim X Dodge, author of Theta House
"Oscar Tremont can be described as A MODERN-DAY SHERLOCK HOLMES, HERCULE POIROT, AND MATTHEW SCUDDER ROLLED INTO ONE. His intellect is obvious. He enjoys a touch of the mysterious and touches of humor. And he has a few personality QUIRKS THAT MAKE HIM MEMORABLE... I love a puzzle mystery and this one didn't disappoint. I couldn't solve it, but then, I rarely can solve A WELL-WRITTEN PUZZLE... This is Oscar Tremont's first appearance in long form. I HOPE IT WON'T BE HIS LAST."
- Robert Petyo, mystery author and Derringer Award finalist
"Oscar is NOT YOUR TYPICAL PRIVATE DETECTIVE. He's more interested in satisfying his own curiosity than letting justice have its way. That, to me, makes him A FLAWED CHARACTER but also gives a different and UNPREDICTABLE EDGE TO THE STORIES. You never know what the final outcome of each case will be."
- Bob
"Really good read. An ENTERTAINING MYTHOLOGICAL STORY and a CAPTIVATING MYSTERY with a SURPRISE REVEAL. Convincing characters. Thoroughly enjoyed it."
- A. Thomas
"Dead on the Dolmen is rooted in a way that feels increasingly rare, and THE SOIL IT DRAWS FROM IS ANCIENT, STONY, AND STEEPED IN STORY. Brittany is not used as postcard scenery, but as lived-in geography. You can feel the damp in the air, the weight of centuries pressing beneath the grass; a sense that folklore hasn't vanished so much as learned to wait."
- Matthew Tait, author of Random Stairs
