The Last Layer - Tapa dura

Senior Inspector Gerard de Rochenoir of the elite French National Police is attempting to solve two daring jewelry robberies in the heart of Paris when one of the victims turns up murdered. Gerard's investigation takes him to the glamorous Caribbean island of St. Barth where he crosses paths with Sofia Mostov, a striking jeweler with a mysterious past and a possible link to the crimes. While Gerard keeps a suspicious eye on Mostov, he meets Catherine York, an attractive American insurance executive twenty years his junior, who happens to be investigating the same two Paris robberies as well as others that may be related. When Pierre Abou, a Sherlock Holmes obsessed cop, makes a stunning discovery at a farmhouse on the Brittany coast, the mystery begins to unravel and leads Gerard and Catherine around the world and straight to another murder. As this unlikely couple becomes intertwined in the complexities of a passionate relationship, they soon discover that Sofia Mostov is not only mysterious and beautiful, but also very dangerous.

Lawrence Perlman is a retired lawyer and business executive who has lived abroad and traveled extensively. He is the author of a memoir about growing up in St. Paul, Minnesota, in the 1950s and 60s. He lives in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, with his wife, Linda, and their English Springer Spaniel.