I sadly didn’t finish this book as I couldn’t work out if o had missed part of the series and thought it was too jarring to continue.

Thank you NetGalley and Duckworth Books for my approval to read and review this book.

Juge Matthieu Lombard is brought out of self imposed leave to take on a mysterious death of Graham Singleterry in the beautiful Loire Valley. It centres on a little town, which seems to be a great place to live but it has secrets!! How, why, who, what, when and where this all happened? It is full of twists and turns with a few red herrings thrown in to distract you from learning the true reason. It is a fast paced story with a surprising ending! I will be recommending this book.

I really enjoyed this book. It is set in France in the Loire Valley. The town has a very much village feel with everyone knowing everyone. One day a body is found on a crucifix but in the style of the one Joan of Arc was burnt on. The Judge (Juge) who has been instructed to deal with the case is Matthiew Lombard (French mother, English father) and he sometimes feels he does not belong to either camp. The man who is murdered is an English expat and the work begins to find out the mystery behind the murder. Lombard and the senior police offer (Guy Aubret) are at odds about the circumstances. Aubret hanging his hat on the Joan of Arc theory whereas Lombard feels there is more to this and continues to do his own thing annoying Aubret immensley . As Lombard works the case another body is found and there does not seem to be any indication that the two murders go together. The plot gets more complicated but in a good way. While investigating these crimes another person is severely injured and this leads Lombard to some way out thoughts which prove to be correct in the end. I liked the story and enjoyed the characters especially Aubret who had to put up with Lombard’s laboured ways. At times he could have just said what he thought rather than going off on his own but at the same time he did solve the case. Will read more of this author

As with all Ian’s books this is a pleasure to read. The locations are so well drawn, you feel like you could be in France yourself.

The murder in the opening pages is particularly brutal, letting you know that this is a different kind of book. There are still glimpses of the author’s trademark humour, but this is a much darker than the Follet Valley series.

A great introduction to the complex character of Juge Lombard and the start of a thrilling new crime series.

A gruesome murder of an English ex-pat resident of a small village in the Loire Valley brings Mathieu Lombard back to his role of Juge d'Instruction. It has been a year since Lombard left to grieve the passing of his wife, but he also left under a cloud of suspicion having been accused of destroying evidence in a case. Being that Lombard is 1/2 English and 1/2 French, he was seen as the natural choice for this sensitive case. While typically the role of juge d'instruction is to oversee the investigation, Mathieu decides to jump in and do the dirty work himself. This in no way pleases commissaire Guy Aubret. who would normally be running the show and is now reduced to sidekick. He does not trust Lombard on the least.
The method of the murder, a crucifixion covered as a scarecrow, and much of the evidence points to connections with Joan of Arc. St Joan has many connections to the Loire valley and this village, along with others, has a tourist industry economy baed on it, but what doe this many have to do with Joan of Arc?
Moore creates interesting and quirky town characters which could all have motives of different sorts. Each new piece of evidence makes the mystery more vexing rather than more clear. The pace of the story is a little slow, but I think that is actually a nod to the pace of the life in the Loire - NYC, this is not.
For readers who enjoy the Thursday Murder Club, or Death comes to Marlow, or the lesser know series of Colin Cotterill's Dr. Siri Paiboun set in Laos, you will definitely enjoy this first of a new series!

My thanks to NetGalley and Duckworth books for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Interesting to have a police procedural with a French background. The role of a "Juge d'instruction" is quite alien to an English reader. A murder mystery set in the Loire Valley. There are plenty of interesting characters and plot twists leaving the reader guessing right to the end.. Thanks to NetGalley for providing a very stisfying read.

I did not finish this. I thought the method of murder overly complex and stylised, but found I was completely disinterested in knowing who did it and why.

I have to admit, I thoroughly enjoyed this book!
A modern murder mystery with a medieval twist is right up my street. Set in the Loire Valley, with a leading investigator who is half-English and half-French, and as conflicted as his dual nationality accords him.
The clever plot kept me guessing the culprit to the very end, the misdirection and plot twists leading myself and the characters on several wrong turns.
The characters were wonderfully diverse and well developed.
I can highly recommend The Man Who Didn't Burn by Ian Moore.
I will be reading more...

Never have I been so glad to finally finish a book! This one seemed to go on for ages and I really struggled to enjoy it. Not sure if it was because there was a lot of French references in it, which does make sense given the book is set in rural France but given it is written in English, it therefore made it harder to follow as I didn't know a lot of the words used. By the time it gets to the crux, I'd forgotten why this character was in the frame and not others! Not a book I'd recommend.

Set in the Loire valley with frequent mentions of the various chateaux of that region, this is a crime story with a difference. The setting is beautifully done. I loved the descriptions of the area and it would be a great book to take on holiday if you're going to be in that region. The protagonist, juge d'instruction Lombard is a man haunted by his belief that his dead wife was unfaithful. Nonetheless he is a sympathetic main character and we root for him throughout. The tale itself is quite complicated with British ex=pats featuring strongly.

Overall, a slow burner but worth reading. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

This is the first book I have read by Ian Moore, although I had heard of him, and it is very readable. With the setting and the characters, plus an interesting plot, it is a good book to relax with.

Thanks to Net Galley and the publishers for the opportunity to review this book.

I would like to thank Netgalley and Duckworth Books for an advance copy of The Man Who Didn’t Burn, the first novel to feature juge d’instruction Matthieu Lombard, set in and around Tours.

Englishman Graham Singleterry is found brutally murdered on the outskirts of Saint Genèse, a small village in the Loire. Lombard is asked to lead the investigation, but nothing is straightforward. He uncovers grudges, feuds and an unexpected link to Joan of Arc.

I enjoyed The Man Who Didn’t Burn, although it is slow to start and a bit convoluted in the story it has to tell. I was surprised that it is nothing like the author’s Follet Valley series - it is more a police procedural (not that Lombard has any interest in procedure) and has no humour. The author is to be applauded for trying a new direction.

As I said the plot is slow to start and that’s quite necessary in a new series as the characters have to be introduced and relationships between them explained and, boy, is there some explaining to do. Lombard lost his wife to cancer and a some of his grip on life. He hasn’t worked in the past year, perhaps due to suspension, perhaps due to bereavement leave it’s not quite clear, so this case is a baptism of fire, in terms of his colleagues not trusting him and the nature of the case. I found him quite dreary and couldn’t be bothered with his introspection (too much like the French literary tradition of troubled protagonists).

Once all the introductions are done the plot soon heats up with several more bodies and a fair amount of misdirection. It’s all go, not least because they have no idea of motive or a suspect, not that I did either, so that kept me turning the pages. The struggle with the investigation is compounded by friction between Lombard and the commissaire and his navel gazing. To be honest, I think the novel lacks the sharpness and clarity of a really good read, but it’s a solid start. 3.5*

A really enjoyable read, there was a little too much explanation of the French system at times but otherwise a good read. Hoping there are more in the series.

Detective novel set in the Loire Valley - quite original and an easy read.

Juge Lombard is the" juge d'instruction" who is called upon to help to investigate a grisly murder in a small town near Tours. With his own problems close to his chest, he goes about this in a suitably maverick way for his line of work. The novel moves along at a reasonable pace and the characters are well-developed. There's a lot to learn about the French way of life in small towns and in the police, which I was already acquainted with. It's quite good and a different type of novel. My usual gripe, usually about American thriller writers: the author doesn't need to show his extensive knowledge of the streets of his town - which doesn't add anything to the plot. An enjoyable read, recommended to lovers of detective fiction. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

I enjoyed this but at times it felt a little slow.

Thank you to the writer, publisher, and NetGalley for allowing me to read this book.

I had high hopes for this Book but sadly that was soon dashed , but never one to give in I finished to the end #NetGalley, #Goodreads, #FB, #Amazon.co.uk, #Instagram, # <img src="https://www.netgalley.com/badge/8a5b541512e66ae64954bdaab137035a5b2a89d2" width="80" height="80" alt="200 Book Reviews" title="200 Book Reviews"/>, #<img src="https://www.netgalley.com/badge/ef856e6ce35e6d2d729539aa1808a5fb4326a415" width="80" height="80" alt="Reviews Published" title="Reviews Published"/>, #<img src="https://www.netgalley.com/badge/aa60c7e77cc330186f26ea1f647542df8af8326a" width="80" height="80" alt="Professional Reader" title="Professional Reader"/>.

I took a while to get into this book - possibly because of the French judiciary system. Fairly good read though.
Matthieu Lombard is a Juge who is working with Commissaire Guy Aubret to solve a very disturbing murder of an Englishman in a quiet village in the Loire Valley.
Lombard has taken the last year off work after the death of his wife, and has some unusual ways of working that annoy Aubret.
After another death, it seems like someone is trying to portray the importance of Joan of Arc in the village - but not everyone is who and what they seem.

Thanks to NetGalley for the advance copy.

I very much enjoyed the setting of this story and the descriptions of life in the Loire valley. The characters of Lombard and Aubret were both interesting and sympathetic, however, I found the multitude of other characters who lived around the village to be a little shallow and confusing, and this made it difficult to form an opinion of who committed the murder. After several promising red herrings, I also found the actual denouement to be a little underwhelming. Nevertheless, I would welcome the chance to read a second instalment in this series for the setting and detectives alone.

It took a while to get into this book mainly because I was unfamiliar with the French judiciary. Once I'd sort of sorted that it moved along at a reasonable pace with plenty of description about the Loire countryside, the local inhabitants both English and French and life in general in a town devoted to Joan of Arc. The two main characters are Matthieu Lombard (juge d'instruction) and Guy Aubret (senior police officer). They do not get on particularly well and are vying for control of the murder investigations not helped by Lombard being a somewhat rogue character. However, they cope and there is a satisfactory ending with loose ends tided up. 3.5* but not quite enough to round up, promising characters nonetheless. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advance copy.

What a very enjoyable murder mystery this book is. I hadn’t read any of Ian Moore’s work before, but I will in the future.
The story starts off a little slowly, with a chilling prologue, then with a very detailed, and highly imaginative style of murder. The narrative very soon picks up pace, which is maintained to the excellent conclusion. There are many twists and turns along the way, when the reader fears for the welfare, and/or sanity of Lombard, the main protagonist. There are many characters in this story, all well defined and easy to keep track of.
The writing style is very different from the usual whodunnit, the prose reading as tongue-in-cheek at times. I love that aspect of it, it is a refreshing change.
This is an intriguing, well thought out story, and being based in the stunning Loire valley, has a little added exoticism.
I would love to read more of Juge Lombard, and his exploits, I sincerely hope the author considers revisiting Lombard, and his French colleagues.
My thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for my advance copy of this book. Highly recommended.