Allmen and the Dragonflies

A thrilling art heist escapade infused with European high culture and luxury that doesn’t shy away from the darker side of human nature.

Johann Friedrich von Allmen, a bon vivant of dandified refinement, has exhausted his family fortune by living in Old World grandeur despite present-day financial constraints. Forced to downscale, Allmen inhabits the garden house of his former Zurich estate, attended by his Guatemalan butler, Carlos. When not reading novels by Balzac and Somerset Maugham, he plays jazz on a Bechstein baby grand. Allmen’s fortunes take a sharp turn when he meets a stunning blonde whose lakeside villa contains five Art Nouveau bowls created by renowned French artist Émile Gallé and decorated with a dragonfly motif. Allmen, pressured to pay off mounting debts, absconds with the priceless bowls and embarks on a high-risk, potentially violent bid to cash them in. This is the first of a series of humorous, fast-paced detective novels devoted to a memorable gentleman thief who, with his trusted sidekick Carlos, creates an investigative firm to recover missing precious objects.

187 Pages

Release Date: 2018

Martin Suter, born in Zurich in 1948, is a novelist, screenwriter and newspaper columnist. He has written a dozen novels, many of them best-sellers in Europe and translated into 32 languages. Suter lives with his family in Zurich.

Steph Morris is a writer, translator, artist, gardener and cyclist based in London after many years in Berlin. 

Reviews

“A rollicking good time … Bestselling Swiss author Martin Suter may have a classic on his hands in this contemporary crime novel, the first of a series featuring the memorable character of Johann Friedrich von Allmen, gentleman thief.” The Winnipeg Free Press

“Suter combines sleight-of-hand suspense with stunning art and slightly worn Old World elegance to create a smartly entertaining read … A classy puzzler.” Library Journal

“Martin Suter is a darkly comic writer of exceptionally stylish and entertaining thrillers … Suter has created an intimate story with a fully realised setting that aches with sophistication and humour. Allmen and the Dragonflies is a lot of fun but also a totally engrossing mystery.” Nudge-Book