To fall in love is to be young again. To count the cost is to die a little bit inside. In Speak Softly My Love, Inspector Gilles Maintenon goes out for a quart of milk and stumbles across a dead man. The trouble is, when the dead get up and walk away. They have one too many missing-person reports, too many wives, girlfriends and other mysterious blondes. Enticing as it is, Gilles has a heavy court schedule. Without a body and a firm identification, what can they really do? It's a time of budget restraint and limited resources-and the work keeps piling up. The suave but inexperienced Detective Hubert, and the raw but persistent Detective Tailler must handle the case. All Maintenon can do is keep his mouth shut and let them give it a shot. In this, the fifth in the noir Inspector Gilles Maintenon Mystery Series, author Louis Shalako transports the reader into the gritty reality of murder in Paris, 1931. An unforgettable mystery, one that is dark, witty and entertaining.