Mr. Bannalec seems to be having translator problems. I noticed it first with The Missing Corpse, translated by Sorcha McDonagh (really loopy word choices) and now The Killing Tide translated by Peter Millar (full of partial sentences). Overall, this is not the best of the series, This one isn't the best of the Brittany Murder series but really, all of these books are pretty good. ( )

A woman is found dead with her throat slashed open in the bin of fish guts at the local fish auction house. She was known to have stirred up trouble with the local fishermen by demanding sustainable fishing practices.

Then a second woman is found in the graveyard of plague victims with her throat slashed in the same manner. She was also a supporter of sustainable fishing practices and a protector of dolphins.

Recently the two had been seen together out on each other's boats and had purchased new equipment for their boats. Upon investigating Dupin discovers that all of their technology is missing.

Along with this plot, enter a man with criminal practices running a huge fishing & smuggling enterprise, who ends up being the 2nd victim's father.

A 3rd corpse is found on a far-off part of the area, murdered in the same manner and with a tenuous connection to the 2 women.

Again I skipped a good portion of Dupin's ruminations, but the story had an interesting turn, in that the two women were working together searching for a treasure & any number of people were watching them closely when they went out to sea together...

Sadly we never got to know the women when they were alive. ( )

This is the second book in the series I have read, and the author creates a very believable world in the coastal area of Brittany. The story is a procedural of three identical murders with no obvious suspect, but the author also weaves the food and wine culture of the area, as well as Breton folklore including sea witches and ghost ships into the story. Dupin is such a likable character, you just hang out with him, eat seafood, and watch the sunset on the beach. ( )

It's an inconclusive whodunit murder mystery. The story is set in present day Brittany on the west coast of France. It's a rural area far from cosmopolitan Paris, the hometown of the protagonist/narrator, Commissaire Georges Dupin. The atmospheric setting overwhelms the mystery story, crowding out what is essentially a police procedural. Dupin is assisted by two inspectors. and one of them is prone to delivering rambling history lectures whenever possible. The flow of the story gets blocked by these diversions and obscures the ecological commentary about the state of the fishery, a central theme of the story. Dupin runs on caffeine from his numerous espresso fixes. More crucial is the omnipresent support of his assistant, Nolwenn, who is a standout character. The mystery story is squeezed into a 48-hour time frame which artificially ramps up suspense. The ending is twisty, but anti-climatic. This is the fifth of a series and can be read as a standalone, although Dupin's backstory would be missed without having read the previous books in the series. ( )

There were so many characters that I had trouble keeping track. A map would have been incredibly useful and perhaps a glossary because I knew nothing about different kinds of fishing boats and fish. I enjoy the local legends. ( )