Breton conditions - a case for Commissioner Dupin

Breton conditions: A case for Commissioner Dupin is a book by the pseudonymous author Jean-Luc Bannalec about Commissioner Georges Dupin, who solves the murder of the hotelier Pierre-Louis Pennec. The former program manager of S. Fischer Verlag , Jörg Bong, is behind the pseudonym .

Several sequels have appeared in the series around Commissioner Dupin: Breton Surf (2013), Breton Gold (2014), Breton Pride (2015), Breton Flood (2016), Breton Lights (2017), Breton Secrets (2018), Breton Legacy ( 2019) and Breton specialties (2020). In 2014, the film adaptation of Erstromans Commissioner Dupin: Breton conditions was published. See Commissioner Dupin for the other films.

The book

The book is divided into four chapters, whereby each chapter corresponds to a day and was named accordingly ( "The first day" ...). The story begins on Friday, the day after the murder of Pierre-Louis Pennec took place the night before.

Many of the places, people and events that appear in the novel have a real background. Important localities appearing in the book are Concarneau , Pont-Aven and Brest . Events such as the Fête des Filets Bleus , the Fest-noz or the artists' colony of Pont-Aven are also drawn from reality. In particular, numerous, mainly French, painters are mentioned in history. The picture that is stolen in the novel is supposed to be a fictional second version of the real painting "The Vision After the Sermon" by Paul Gauguin .

action

Marie-Jeanne Pennec

?

?

Charles Pennec

?

Darice Pennec (†)

Pierre-Louis Pennec

André Pennec

Loïc Pennec

Catherine Pennec

Family tree of the Pennec family Marked in
red is the murdered hotelier Pierre-Louis Pennec.

At the Hotel Central in Pont Aven, the hotel manager Pierre-Louis Pennec is found covered in blood in the hotel bar. Commissioner Georges Dupin starts the investigation with his two inspectors. After numerous interviews, the group of suspects increased to include Francine Lajoux, Fragan Delon, Frédéric Beauvois and his son Loïc, his wife Catherine and his half-brother André Pennec.

Francine Lajoux is the hotel manager of the Hotel Central for many years. From various statements Georges learns the rumor that Lajoux and Pierre-Louis had a relationship. Fragan is a longtime friend. Frédéric owns a local art museum, for which Pennec regularly donated large sums of money. The former relationship between Pierre-Louis and Loïc Pennec is described by those surveyed as poor, as Loïc Pennec appeared unable to continue running his father's hotel any day. With his half-brother André, Pierre-Louis had a serious argument decades ago, which led to Andrés being disinherited.

Two more crimes occur during the investigation. On the first night after the murder, the window pane at the crime scene, the hotel bar, is smashed without any further evidence. Another day later, Loïc is found dead at the foot of a cliff on the beach.

Georges is particularly conspicuous that Pierre-Louis was diagnosed with stenosis by his family doctor Bernez Garreg three days before his death and did not want to undergo a vital operation, which gave him only a few days to live. Since this diagnosis, there was a series of unusual events, especially Pierre-Louis that the purpose of a planned Testament change an appointment with his notary arrange left. So he died exactly the day before his notary appointment. In the days between the doctor's visit and his death, there was also a loud argument with an initially unknown person, several telephone calls Pierre-Louis to the Musée d'Orsay and a telephone conversation with his half-brother André.

Paul Gauguin - The vision after the sermon .

Upon further investigation of the crime scene, Georges notices that the hotel bar is unusually well air-conditioned. A wall is adorned with numerous paintings by well-known artists, but these are only copies of paintings. Since such a good air conditioning system for copies seems excessive to Georges, Georges asks the art historian Marie Morgane Cassel to take a closer look at all the pictures. A painting seems strange to Marie. It is similar to the painting “The Vision After the Sermon” by Paul Gauguin and also bears its features. Marie wonders whether the picture could be a previously undiscovered second version of the picture that Gauguin created. Since the picture does not seem old enough to have been painted by Gauguin, it can at best be a copy. The art historian estimates the value for the real picture at 30 to 40 million euros.

Since Georges sees a motif for murder in the picture, he concentrates his further investigations more on the painting and, with the exception of Loïc Pennec, who has since died, asks all of the main suspects about the picture again. Although none of the people mentioned the image and its value to him in the first questioning, it turns out that everyone knew about it. Pennec's grandmother Marie-Jeanne Pennec received the picture over 100 years ago as a thank you for the hospitality from Gauguin, who was a guest at the Hotel Central at the time.

After Marie found a hidden signature in the unknown Gauguin painting, Georges searches the Fréderic art museum. He finds a painting with the same motif as the unknown Gauguin painting in the hotel bar. However, it immediately turns out that this picture is also a copy. Beauvois explains that he made this copy about 30 years ago. He also confesses to breaking into the hotel bar and exchanging his copy for the supposed original image. He justifies his act by saying that he wanted to prevent the painting from passing into Loïc's possession. In his opinion, this was entirely in the spirit of Pierre-Louis, who never wanted such an important picture to fall into the hands of his son who was not interested in art. It was only later that he noticed the error of having exchanged his copy for another copy by the painter Gilbert Sonnheim instead of the original.

Georges goes in search of the original picture. He remembers that there was a kind of shed on two of Pierre-Louis' properties. He searches both and finds the original image he is looking for in one. Then Georges observes the shed from a nearby forest and a few hours later discovers André entering the shed. Georges catches André and learns that Catherine is behind it all.

In Catherine Pennec's villa, Georges confronts her that he has already heard the truth from André. Catherine contradicts this and explains her version of the events. On the night of the murder, Loïc found out about his father's plan to donate the painting to the museum. In the affect it came to the murder of Pierre-Louis. Since Loïc was not sure whether the foundation was already recorded in his will, he exchanged the original for the Sonnheim copy. Georges triumphantly explains that this action was superfluous because the will has not yet been changed and that the Pennecs simply inherited the picture. Catherine goes on to report that Loïc was tormented by remorse over the murder and that he wanted to face the police. In order to prevent this, she killed her husband prematurely and instructed André, who trades in wealthier classes, to sell the picture on the black market.

Catherine will have to answer for her husband's murder. Thanks to Andrés political influence, however, further investigations into his person are suspended. The justification is that André did not commit any crime, since he was only about to sell a picture on behalf of Catherine, which everyone believed to be stolen, but which was actually the property of his client. Georges, on the other hand, holds that he has made himself a criminal offense in the sense of complicity , and is bothered by the fact that better-off people can ignore justice. In a telephone conversation with Marie, he announced that one day, when suspicion no longer came back on him, he would leak secret information about the true story to a newspaper publisher in order to at least tarnish Andrés political career.

The people

Main character: Commissioner Georges Dupin

Georges Dupin often has problems bowing to authority, which among other things led to his being transferred from Paris to Concarneau three years before the start of the story. He deliberately behaves unfriendly towards people he doesn't like. Some of the people he likes include his secretary Nolwenn, his inspector Riwal, Paul Girard, and especially Marie Morgane Cassel. Georges often doesn't let his interlocutors finish speaking. During his interviews, he likes to change the subject abruptly in order to surprise the respondent and not give them time to think. Like Inspector Columbo , he likes to end an interrogation with a little final question . To think about a case, Georges likes to distance himself from his surroundings by taking a walk or sitting in a sidewalk cafe and eating or drinking something. During this time he also does not take calls on his cell phone, even if it is one of his two inspectors who wants to inform him of the latest circumstances. He writes down information in his notebook, but usually proceeds in a clumsy way, be it in the unstructured way in which he notes everything or that he keeps misplacing the pens. He drinks several cups of coffee in one day, even though his family doctor asked him to limit consumption. He prefers to eat entrecôte . Often times he forgets to eat when he's in the middle of a criminal case. It is also his way of not immediately informing his inspectors and his secretary about all the circumstances of his steps to clarify, especially when there are new findings and he then distributes instructions.

Other named persons

The list of all named persons in the order of their appearance (column "#" ):

#	Surname	comment
1	Georges Dupin	Concarneau Commissioner. Main character of the story.
2	Paul Girard	Owner of the café / restaurant "Amiral" .
3	(Jules?) Maigret	Former guest of the Amiral café . Presumably Jules Maigret is meant.
4th	Paul Gauguin	Real personality. Fictitiously created the painting the story is about.
5	Kadeg	One of two inspectors for Commissioner Dupin.
6th	Lug Locmariaquer	Prefect of the Finistère department .
7th	de la Croix	Chairman of the delegation from the Canadian state of Stoud, twin town of Concarneau.
8th	Pierre-Louis Pennec	Owner of the hotel "Central" . Found murdered in the bar of his hotel.
9	Dercap	Quimperlé City Commissioner responsible for Pont Aven. Is on vacation, which is why Georges Dupin is replacing him.
10	Riwal	One of two inspectors for Commissioner Dupin.
11	Marie-Jeanne Pennec	Grandmother of the murdered man, founder of the Hotel "Central".
12	Nolwenn	Secretary to Commissioner Dupin.
13	Lafond	Coroner.
14th	Ewen Savoir	New young medical examiner from Quimper .
15th	Francine Lajoux	Hotel manager of the Central. Close relationship with Pierre-Louis Pennec. Found the body of Pierre-Louis.
16	Albin Bonnec	Policeman from Pont Aven, already on duty for some time.
17th	Arzhvaelig	New young policeman from Pont Aven.
18th	René Reglas	Forensic scientist and head of forensics.
19th	Lagrange	Forensic agents.
20th	Loïc Pennec	Son of Pierre-Louis Pennec.
21st	Catherine Pennec	Wife of Loïc Pennec.
22nd	André Pennec	Half-brother of Pierre-Louis Pennec. Politicians in the south in parliament for the conservatives.
23	Galvani	Guest of the hotel at the time of the crime.
24	Can	Young hotel workers, housekeeping.
25th	Denoelalig	Young hotel workers, housekeeping.
26th	Mendu	Hotel staff responsible for breakfast. Intended as the successor to the hotel management.
27	Edouard Glavinec	Chef of the hotel. Last seen Pierre-Louis Pennec alive.
28	Ronan Breton	Kitchen boy.
29	Darice Pennec	Former wife of Pierre-Louis Pennec. Died in an accident near the Glénan Islands about 20 years ago.
30th	Julia Guillou	Hotel owner of the Hotel Julia (at the time of the artist colony), which is located opposite the Hotel Central .
31	Charles Pennec	Father of Pierre-Louis Pennec.
32	Corinne Leray	Runs the restaurant at Hotel Pennec.
33	Fragan Delon	Friend of Pierre-Louis Pennec.
34	Robert Wylie	Real person. American painter. Fictitiously lies in the same grave as Darice Pennec.
35	Claude Monet	Real person. French painter.
36	Bernez Garreg	Joint family doctor of Georges Dupin and Pierre-Louis Pennec.
37	Fabien Goyard	Mayor of Pont-Aven.
38	Véro	Former mistress of Georges Dupin.
39	Claire	Former mistress of Georges Dupin.
40	Rodallec	Practice employee of Bernez Garreg.
41	Charles Vanel	Real person. French actor and director with a film career of 78 years.
42	Frédéric Beauvois	Friend of Pierre-Louis Pennec. Runs an art museum in Pont-Aven, retired art teacher and chairman of the local art association.
43	Carlé	Head of the small port in Pont-Aven.
44	Camille de Denis	Notary. Drew up Pierre-Louis Pennec's will.
45	Émile Bernard	Real person. French painter.
46	Charles Filiger	Real person. French painter.
47	Henry Moret	Real person. French painter.
48	Gustave Flaubert	Real person. French author.
49	Lou	Sister of Georges Dupin, architect and carpenter.
50	Maurice Kerriou	Operator of the restaurant of the old mill.
51	Aubert	Former leader of the Art Association of Frédéric Beauvois' Museum.
52	Gaspard Dupin	Father of Georges Dupin.
53	Anna Dupin	Mother of Georges Dupin.
54	Paul Sérusier	Real person. French painter.
55	Laval	Real person.
56	Armand Seguin	Real person.
57	Jacob Meyer de Haan	Real person.
58	Juliette	Friend of Georges Dupin, student of art history. Possibly the first name of his former girlfriend Véro.
59	Marie Morgane Cassel	Art historian from Brest. Helps Georges Dupin with art issues.
60	Houarvian	Pierre-Louis Pennec hairdresser.
61	Vincent van Gogh	Real person.
62	Pablo Picasso	Real person.
63	Louis Anquetin	Real person. French painter.
64	Alain Trifin	Owner of the Ar Men Du café .
65	Charles Sauré	Collection manager of the Musée d'Orsay.
66	Adèle	Friends of Georges Dupin. Possibly the first name of his former girlfriend Véro.
67	Anne Sauré	Wife of Charles Sauré.
68	Honoré	Director of the Musée d'Orsay.
69	Efflammig	Employee of a pharmacy.
70	Gilbert Sonnheim	Made a copy of the stolen painting.
71	Henri Matisse	Real person. French painter.
72	Montner	Policeman from Pont Aven.
73	René Brevalaer	President of the Union of Brittany. Is named by André Pennec as an alibi.
74	Marc	Husband or friend of Dupin's sister Lou.
75	Louis Seize	Real person: Louis XVI.
76	Lilou Breval	Journalist and friend of Georges Dupin.

expenditure

• Jean-Luc Bannalec : Breton conditions: a case for Commissioner Dupin . 3. Edition. Kiepenheuer & Witsch , Cologne 2012, ISBN 978-3-462-04406-5 .

In addition to the printed edition, there is also an e-book edition and an audio book on audio CD.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Richard Kämmerlings : Crime Shooting Star: From Zero to Hundred - Who is Jean Luc Bannalec? on: Welt Online . June 6, 2012.
2. ↑ Matthias Borngrebe: Is Jörg Bong behind Jean-Luc Bannalec? June 6, 2012.