Recently, on his way back from Orlando, storms there held Adam up, which meant an unexpected overnight in LA, and a quick trip to Small World Books in Venice Beach - lucky me scored some great Bitter Lemon and SOHO Crime titles. The first of these I read was Goat Song by Chantal Pelletier. Opening paragraph:
"A cold stench of sweat, tobacco, saltpetre, whiffs of bleach and ammonia. Elsa crossed the entrance hall of the Moulin Rouge without greeting the cleaning ladies. At ten o'clock in the morning, the music hall that had set the legendary heart of Montmartre beating, where Lautrec and Picasso kicked up their heels and caught the clap, was no postcard. The girl in the red raincoat burst into the office of the imbecilic personnel manager, whose mouth was constantly agape from stupidity and chronic sinusitis."