An existential detective story by one of Frances most popular modern writers set in a midnineteenth century mountain village available in English for the first time A King Alone is set in a remote Alpine village that is cut off from the world by rugged mountains and by long months when the ground is covered with snow and the heavens with cloud. One such winter villagers begin mysteriously to disappear. Soon the village is paralyzed by terror which gives way to relief and eager anticipation when