St. Emilion's Secret

By Pen Avram

Kroupa needs a holiday, so an invitation to a premiere in Bordeaux comes at just the right time. However, 'in vino veritas' and the region's vineyards soon reveal that the sins of the past still have devastating ramifications to this day. If Kroupa was hoping to avoid a murder, he's in for a disappointment, and this time the stakes are very high!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Pen Avram
• Release date: Sep 28, 2014
• ISBN: 9781310870156

Pen Avram

This one-time piano mechanic turned Master of Applied Science (Critical Enquiry/Social Ecology) fled to the West from the former Soviet bloc, finally finding his home in Australia. Growing up in a family touched by the horrors of the holocaust and communism, Pen Avram has spent his life studying what drives people of different faiths around the world to act the way they do. His insights now inform the mysteries investigated by the intrepid team of Kroupa and Hendrych. And Sara is a real dog, blood an bones.

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St. Emilion's Secret

A book by JJA

From the series created by Pen Avram:

Hendrych and Kroupa investigate

PUBLISHED BY:

Pen Avram on Smashwords

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Copyright 2014 Text-Author - Pen Avram

Copyright 2014 ArtDesign Author - Pen Avram

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be identified as the author and designer of this work,

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CHAPTER 1 - KROUPA TAKES A BREAK

Cap Ferret was unlike any other part of France that Kroupa had ever visited. A long peninsula that walled off the Bay of Arcachon from the crashing waves of the Atlantic, protecting the local oyster farmers. It stretched for kilometers, a long stretch of wild beach on its western coast, and a strip of hotels, restaurants and fisherman's huts on the eastern side facing Arcachon and the monumental Dune du Pilat.

Kroupa was sitting at one of the oyster farmers' makeshift outdoor restaurants, enjoying a bottle of local Bordelaise Rose and an oyster degustation, while Sara was running around the exposed sea bed, digging in the mud that had been exposed by the receding tide. It was 3pm, the oyster farmer was already packing up shop for the day, and as Kroupa's stomach gurgled contentedly, he chuckled as Sara struggled to comprehend why a piece of land, she'd been poking about in only minutes before, was now underwater. The tide was coming back in to reclaim the thousands of oysters that sat, as if caged, the stretch of the peninsula.

Kroupa drank up, paid his bill and whistled to Sara to follow him and they slowly returned to their hotel. Kroupa had a massage booked at the spa and the owners had very generously offered to take Sara for a walk with them, so both were up for a treat. Kroupa stopped to look up at the lighthouse, which dominated the village, rising up like some giant cigarette, white, then red with its glowing light warding ships away from the sand banks for which the region was so famous. As he looked up, a couple of F16 fighters flew overhead, breaking the sound barrier and shattering the peace and quiet. It was hard to believe that just beyond the giant sand dune across the bay was a US Airforce base. Kroupa couldn't help wondering what Hendrych would make of the place. No doubt he'd much prefer the bawdiness of Biarritz, with its casinos and nightlife. On a clear night, if you stood at the end of Cap Ferret and looked south, you could see its lights shining on the horizon. However Kroupa preferred the pleasures of Cap Ferret and Bordeaux and he had to admit that for once he was pleased to be alone.

Hendrych had stayed behind,