In Slanderous Tongue, author Jill Culiner treats us to an inside look at the lies and salacious rumours lurking beneath the surface of a centuries-old pocket of rural France. Epineux-le-Rainsouin is a sleepy village where the mere spectacle of an amateur ethnologist from Canada washing her windows is enough to excite the local gossips. But that was before Didier Blot, Epineux's emgarde champetre - official town dogsbody and maintenance man - disappeared without a word. When rumours start to collect about Didier's sexual escapades and his environmental activism, the local veterinarian has good reason to fear he may become a murder suspect. But when he urges his Canadian friend to find out on the sly what the locals are saying, she soon uncovers some curious connections. Things get particularly interesting when she discovers the trail of broken hearts Didier has left in his wake. But she and the town vet have a few secrets of their own. How deep can she dig before tongues start to wag about her?Filled with outrageously humorous dialogue and sly irony as well as fascinating vignettes of French village life, Slanderous Tongue is riveting reading for mystery lovers who enjoy a good murder story served up in a quirky, quick-witted style.

A professional photographer and consummate traveller who divides her time between Toronto and France, Jill Culiner is the author of Finding Home: In the Footsteps of the Jewish Fusgeyers, Sumach Press, 2004.

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