Pierre Magnan - Read it First

St Martin's Press have a 'Read It First' programme where every Mon-Fri you receive a few pages of a new book. It covers all genres but this week the featured book is 'Death in The Truffle Wood' by Pierre Magnan. You can read the Euro Crime review here.

To sign up go here and you can catch up with the current week's samples by requesting them here.

Here are the first few lines to whet your appetitite...

CHAPTER ONE

"Come on Roseline! Just one more? Dig me up another one!"

Lying on his side with his head resting on his hand and a blade of grass dangling from his lips, Alyre Morelon was stroking Roseline with words as well as gestures. And Roseline was giving little grunts of satisfaction while affectionately licking his beard with her tongue, which smelled deliciously of fresh truffles.

"Come on Roseline. Don't be silly. Just one. Get me one more and then we'll go home."

But Roseline needed a lot of coaxing. She kept giving him gentle persuasive head butts, obviously meaning, "Get going! It's time to go home. You've got enough for today. Your eyes are bigger than your stomach."

Alyre looked at his basket and sighed. It contained scarcely four kilos and the agent had ordered ten for Saturday.

"You're a lazy lump!" he said. "I'm not speaking to you any more."