Affairs of the state

Dominique Manotti is back on form with a tale of intrigue and corruption.

A call-girl whose black book lists her elite international clients is found murdered in an underground garage; a plane bound for Iran laden with illegal arms disappears from the skies over Turkey, and the president's closest adviser Bornard, head of a controversial Elysee security unit, manipulates the system with consummate ease - and illegality.

Until the day when rookie investigator Noria Ghozali determines to untangle the threads which bind these events together.

In doing so she penetrates the Elysee's innermost system, confronts the workings of money and corruption within government, and in the process is forced to combat the institutional - and overt - racism which repeatedly stalls her.