Le Cinquième Procédé by Leo Malet
As I slowly make my way through the early Nestor Burma stuff (pre- Nouveaux Mystères, so not necessarily set in Paris) I realise that many of the early stories, though written post WW2 are set during (or even before) the war. Le Cinquième Procédé (the Fifth Process) is centred on a scientific McGuffin and is mostly set in 1942 Marseille, with some bits in Paris and a section where Nestor tries to cross the demarcation line. Thankfully, the coincidences are kept to a minimum, unlike in CQFD. What pulls you in really is the interaction between Burma and Faroux, but also the gritty depiction of occupied France. In 120, rue de la Gare, published during the war, Malet had to contend with censorship. In this novel, his description of France under the nazis is much more direct. Really good.
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