The Unwanted Dead

Two things happened on June the fourteenth, 1940.

Four men no one knew died in a railway yard and a fifth man stepped off a balcony.

There were other things that happened on June the fourteenth, 1940.

The soldiers of the 187th tank destroyers wanted to look their best as they invaded Paris, so they took a wash in the muddy waters of the Ourcq Canal, six kilometres outside the city. In a race to grab the best beds, General Bogislav von Studnitz set up shop in the Crillon Hotel, while all around him, German officers spread their dusty uniforms on the city’s finest bed linen. And in the summer sun, Wehrmacht bands honked endlessly up and down a deserted Champs-Élysées until finally a giant swastika was unfurled over the tomb of the unknown soldier just in case there was anyone left in Paris who didn’t yet know we’d lost.

But in my world, four men no one knew died in a railway yard and a fifth man stepped off a balcony.

Paris, Friday 14th June 1940.

The day the Nazis march into Paris. It made headlines around the globe.

Paris police detective Eddie Giral – a survivor of the last World War – watches helplessly on as his world changes forever.

But there is something he still has control over. Finding whoever is responsible for the murder of four refugees. The unwanted dead, who no one wants to claim.

To do so, he must tread carefully between the Occupation and the Resistance, between truth and lies, between the man he is and the man he was.

All the while becoming whoever he must be to survive in this new and terrible order descending on his home.

The Unwanted Dead – the first book in a new series featuring Eddie Giral, a Paris police detective under the Nazi Occupation.

Reviews
"Such a powerful and morally nuanced crime novel, with the bonus of an unusual and fascinating setting. I thought the book managed the difficult job of being both a gripping murder mystery and a vivid recreation of Paris under German Occupation in World War II."
Andrew Taylor
"In The Unwanted Dead, Chris Lloyd brings to life a Paris at the very beginning of German occupation. When four Polish refugees turn up dead, detective Eddie Giral must investigate, navigating a path between the city’s Nazi overlords, his conflicted colleagues, and his own haunted conscience. Lloyd serves up an excellent beginning to his new series. In Eddie Giral, he has created a character reminiscent of Philip Kerr’s Bernie Gunther, oozing with attitude and a conflicted morality that powers a complex, polished plot. Historical crime at its finest."
Vaseem Khan
"Well-written and carefully researched, it is one to stay with you long after you have finished reading."
Adrian Magson, SHOTS magazine
"A thoughtful, haunting thriller."
Mick Herron
"The Unwanted Dead is the best kind of crime novel: gripping, thought-provoking and moving. In Detective Eddie Giral, Chris Lloyd has created a flawed hero not just for occupied Paris, but for our own times, too - someone who won't go down without a fight, who knows justice when he sees it, and never gives up on those who can't defend themselves."
Katherine Stansfield
"Chris Lloyd’s new book is a terrific read. Revolving around the murder of four Polish refugees on the day the Germans occupied Paris, the story is gripping and well-paced."
Mark Ellis
"Excellent [...] Well written and beautifully researched this book is a page turner and a real discovery."
Netgalley review
"Tense, emotional and vividly written."
Woman & Home
"This beautifully polished and professional novel is thriller writing at its very best. Set in Paris in 1940 (with flashbacks to 1925) it is a story told by Edouard Giral, a detective. The period setting is meticulously authentic. The plot is intricate and unfolds with a flurry of excitement. The story of Nazi occupied Paris is told with honesty and respect. The characters all arrive fully formed, written with empathy and compassion. The solving of the four murders at the heart of the story is done with literary craftsmanship and splendid inventiveness. I eagerly await the next novel in the series."
Netgalley review
"Lloyd's Second World War Paris is rougher than Alan Furst's, and Eddie Giral, his French detective, is way edgier than Philip Kerr's Bernie Gunther. But this series starter, set in the very first days of the German occupation of the French capital, ranks alongside both for its convincingly cloying atmosphere of a city subjugated to a foreign power, a plot that reaches across war-torn Europe and into the rifts in the Nazi factions, and a hero who tries to be a good man in a bad world. Powerful stuff."
Sunday Times Crime Club

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