In Castres, France, Lucie Archambault has come home to begin again. A respected art conservator and recent widow, she has traded the pace of Paris for the quieter rhythms of the Goya Museum, the Saturday market, and a town she once thought she knew. But when Émile Bonnafous, a beloved antiques dealer and one of Castres's great local characters, dies in what appears to be a tragic fall, Lucie cannot shake the feeling that something is wrong.
The deeper she looks, the more the polished surface of small-town life begins to crack. Old rivalries, family silences, half-finished manuscripts, and a grief-stricken city all seem to point in different directions. Even Lucie's own brother, distant for decades, may know more than he has ever been willing to say. As questions multiply, Lucie finds herself drawn into a mystery rooted not just in one man's death, but in the long memory of Castres itself.
Set among the riverfront houses, markets, gardens, and stone streets of a real southern French town, The Parliament of Crows is a warm, atmospheric mystery about loss, loyalty, and the hidden lives that exist just beyond ordinary notice. Gentle in tone, rich in place, and quietly uncanny, it offers a satisfying puzzle for readers who love small communities, layered secrets, and mysteries that linger after the final page.
As one of the first entries in the Good Neighbors Mysteries, this novel continues the series' promise: real towns, authentic local character, and mysteries shaped by the deeper truths each place keeps hidden. In Castres, the streets are old, the neighbors are watchful, and some secrets have been waiting a very long time to be noticed.
