Chris Lloys: The Art of Occupation (GRIFFIN BOOKS AFTER HOURS)

We're delighted to be hosting an event to celebrate the release of The Art of Occupation, the fourth book in his Occupation series featuring Eddie Giral, a French police detective working in Paris under Nazi rule.

The Art of Occupation:
In the city of light, some deals are only made in the shadows. When a corrupt art dealer is killed, Detective Eddie Giral descends into an underground world of stolen paintings, forged identities, and whispered deals with Nazi Occupiers. As Eddie discovers links to a wealthy Jewish family's missing collection, the trail leads him to Paris's Jeu de Paume, where looted masterpieces have vanished - and where guarded curator Rose Valland gives nothing away. But in Eddie's efforts to win her trust he forgets - can he trust her? With Parisians turning against their neighbours to survive, and the different factions of the city's Occupiers entangling Eddie in their power struggles, the answers he needs lie in the museum's most secretive collection...

Chris Lloyd: After graduating in Spanish and French, Chris Lloyd lived in Catalonia, where he worked in educational publishing and as a travel writer. He writes the Occupation series, set in the Second World War, featuring Eddie Giral, a French police detective in Paris under Nazi rule.

The first book in the series, The Unwanted Dead, won the HWA Gold Crown Award for best historical novel of the year, was shortlisted for the CWA Historical Dagger Award and was Waterstone’s Welsh Book of the Month. The second, Paris Requiem, was a Sunday Times Best Historical Fiction Book of 2023. Published in August 2024, the third in the series, Banquet of Beggars, was shortlisted for the CWA Historical Dagger Award. He has also written a trilogy set in present-day Girona, in Catalonia, featuring Elisenda Domènech, a police officer in the devolved Catalan police force. Chris is a member of Crime Cymru, a co-operative of crime fiction writers with a connection to Wales, and was part of the team that brought the country’s first international crime fiction festival to Aberystwyth, in 2023.