The Santon Sacrifices

The Santon Sacrifices

On the last day of November 1891, a village in southern France is preparing for the Christmas season. Small clay figurines called santons, representing the nativity scene, go on display in the church for everyone’s enjoyment. Surrounding the Holy Family are other santons which represent the traditional tradespeople of the village. But on the first of December, one of the children notices that a santon is missing. Later that day, the man represented by that santon is found murdered.

The country guard, Bailey Dufort, is asked to find the murderer. But the next day, another santon goes missing and another man is murdered. Guard Dufort is trained only to catch poachers, and these murders go far beyond what he knows how to handle. The mayor sends for help, and a day later two officers from Aix-en-Provence arrive to help solve the crimes. But the santons keep disappearing and the murders keep happening. The villagers are terrified and the officers are faced with a harrowing task. Of the two thousand residents of the village, who among them is a killer, and why? Eventually, the clues begin to add up, but not before this quiet and quaint village experiences its worst nightmare since the French Revolution.

Available in Paperback and Kindle formats:
Published 2025 by Templar Media | 268 pages | ISBN-13: 979-8986984858

EXCERPT:

On the first day of December, the school children ran to the church to look at the crèche before school started. Farther Benoît stood on the front steps of the Baroque façade, waiting to see the smiling faces of the children. His long black robe was tied around his waist with a wide black sash with long fringe ends. A narrow white clerical collar under the black Mandarin neckline of his robe was always present. When he went out into the night or cold, he wore an outer robe over his first that had a short shoulder cape, and then his sash went on the outside to secure them both. On his head he wore a black Biretta that covered half his forehead. The stiff square hat with three rounded ridges had a small black tassel attached on top. The children loved to tug on his waist sash fringes to get his attention when they had questions, but he didn’t mind. They were God’s young gifts to the village.
It was moments like this that confirmed within him that the love of Jesus and his story would be firmly embedded in these young hearts, and the beliefs of the church would continue into their adulthood. The children shuffled forward as the priest lit the candles in front of the display, so everything in the chapel was seen bathed in a warm glow. They pointed and commented on several of the figurines.
A boy in a brown jacket spoke up. “Look at the silly grin of Lou Ravi.” Another boy pointed to the young shepherd holding the lamb. “See the young shepherd. He looks so amazed.”
Another boy with rosy cheeks responded to him. “You’d be amazed too, if the baby Jesus was not in his crib.” They all laughed at that.
Another young man with curly brown hair spoke up next. “Look at the mayor. He looks so proud of the village.”
Still another young boy spoke, wearing a green coat. “Look at Claud, the blind man. He really does look like he is staring out into nothing.”
They pointed to the figurines that represented their fathers or mothers and smiled approvingly.
Then one boy with stubby fingers cocked his head in confusion. “Father Benoît, where is the hunter? Yesterday he stood on that hillside, but now I don’t see him.”

Read more…

REVIEWS:

“An obsession with revenge that sees no compassion, only blood.”
Review by Lilah Shahkhor

“The Santon Sacrifices” is a nasty piece of work, and I mean that in the best of all possible ways. Like a convergence between a gothic horror novel, a historical mystery, and a true crime podcast, this story details the exploits of a serial killer run rampant upon an unsuspecting French village during the Belle Époque of the late 19th century. Occurring in the dead of winter shortly before Christmas as the town of Lambesc is getting ready for its annual holiday celebrations, the first sign that something has gone terribly wrong is when one of the church’s santon figurines is discovered missing. What follows as the townspeople try to discover what happened to the vanished statue is a dark descent into depravity and death.

I was unfamiliar with the custom of santons before reading this book, which does an excellent job at introducing this fascinating folk art tradition. Originating in Provence during the French Revolution, santons are handmade clay figurines which depict the Nativity scene as well tradespeople. So, along with the Baby Jesus and Mother Mary, a typical santon display may also include statues of a fish monger, baker, cheese maker, potter, woodsman, blacksmith, etc. When the villagers notice that the santon representing the local hunter is gone, then shortly after find his corpse laid out in a gruesome display among his own butchering tools, it’s just the first in a string of murders most foul yet to come. Soon enough, the body count starts to rise, with each crime more horrifying than the one before. With the discovery of each new victim, a pattern starts to emerge, revealing a killer that is elaborate and meticulous, as well as truly twisted. We can’t help but notice that these slayings take on an almost ritual quality, they begin to look less random and more like deliberate sacrifices. But to who … and why?

For the answer to that, the author dives deep into the folklore and political past of the era, ultimately revealing a criminal mind driven by a sick and corrupted religious fervor that borders on the satanic, and an obsession with revenge that sees no compassion, only blood.

Consider this a warning; “The Santon Sacrifices” is not for the faint of heart. The book is filled with gore and wickedness. Like a cross between Clive Barker, H.P. Lovecraft, and James Ellroy, it delights in creating awful scenes of unspeakable violence against a backdrop of quaint domesticity and piety, peppered with clever investigative and police work, as those affected attempt to make sense of the unimaginable. If you enjoy procedurals, crime fiction, mean and dirty horror, and learning about strange mythos and superstitions, this book expertly weaves all of those genres together into a story that will keep you up at night, and scare you well into the broad daylight.