'A splendid mystery with an appealingly enigmatic protagonist, plenty of melodrama and intrigue, and a vivid, pungent evocation of a turbulent time' Guardian Everyone has secrets. Especially the king. When a gruesomely mutilated body is found on the squalid streets of Paris in 1759, the Inspector of Strange and Unexplained Deaths is called to the scene. The body count soon begins to rise and the Inspector falls into a web of deceit that stretches from criminals, secret orders, revolutionaries and aristocrats to very top of society. In the murky world of the court of King Louis XV, finding out the truth will prove to be anything but straightforward. Previously published as Casanova and the Faceless Woman Olivier Barde-Cabuçon is a French author and the creator of The Inspector of Strange and Unusual Deaths, who has featured in seven bestselling historical mysteries so far. The Inspector of Strange and Unusual Deaths (previously titled Casanova and the Faceless Woman) won the Prix Sang d'Encre for crime fiction in 2012 and is the first of the series to be translated into English.