New crime series opens with strange murder

The Lying-Down Room is the first in a new crime series by Melbourne-based author Anna Jaquiery.

A strange case involving a murder carried out to a soundtrack compels the detective in a new crime series from Melbourne-based writer Anna Jaquiery.

The Lying-Down Room is the first in a series based on the exploits of Parisian detective Inspector Serge Morel.

The book opens with the murder of an old lady found dead in her bed, caked in grotesque make-up and killed to the soundtrack of Faure's Requiem.

The detective makes his investigations in the relentless heat of Paris in August, honing in on key suspects including a middle-aged man and a mute teenage boy who have been delivering religious pamphlets.

Personal problems prove a distraction for Inspector Morel - he is struggling with his father's senility and the reappearance of a past love.

He uses an unusual technique to maintain focus on the investigation at hand, the ancient art of origami.

*The Lying-Down Room, published by Pan Macmillan Australia RRP $29.99