New crime thriller

The scent of death in France

Bestselling author René Anour sends his new investigators on an olfactory murder hunt through the perfume mecca of Grasse.

René Anour, a veterinary surgeon by training, has made a name for himself with non-fiction books, but above all with his historical crime series about Fanny, the "doctor of the dead", who gets caught up in bloody conspiracies in Vienna around 1900.

But now the Austrian wanted to land in the now, even if not necessarily in the here and now. He has his new investigative duo, a commissaire and a police psychologist, investigate in Grasse, the French capital of perfume. And of course, fragrances play a murderously important role here.

Bypass into the limbic system
"This topic is also very interesting from a scientific point of view because scents can influence us so much; they can awaken memories and take us back to certain places and events like almost nothing else. Smell creates a direct bypass into our limbic system, so to speak. When I was at school, I was already fascinated by reading Patrick Süßkind's classic 'Perfume' and how scents can be used to manipulate people," he explains in the "Krone" interview. "And of course the research trip to Grasse wasn't the worst thing," he laughs about another motivation.

A corpse in a vat of flowers 
At Anour's time-honored Fragonard perfumery, not only flowers end up in the vat, but also a corpse. And so the police psychologist smuggles herself undercover into the world of fragrances, where she is soon confronted with the smell of death. "I even attended a perfume workshop, but all I got for my creation was an emotionless 'interesting'," he smiles. "I guess I'm not a 'nose'."

He succeeds all the better with his "Deadly Scent" - the title of the olfactory murder hunt that captivates from the very first sniff.