A Northern Light in Provence

Author: Elizabeth Birkelund

In New Zealand, is wintertime. So whilst I have been watching the Paris Olympics and people wearing summer clothing and having a good time, I am rugged up against the chill and hanging in there for the promise of springtime.

But my level of cold is nothing compared to the winters in Greenland. Yes, Greenland, where our novel starts. Ilse is a translator specialising in English, Danish and French translations.

In the first of three distinct parts of the novel we live with Isle, dressed in multiple layers, as she hides away from the world, at the end of the world, working remotely in physical and emotional isolation.

Author: Nicolas Barreau

Montmartre Cemetery holds many secrets. Does it hold the secrets of happiness for widower Julien Azoulay?

For recently widowed Julien, the cemetery at Montmartre lures him back time and time again to visit the grave of his wife Helene.

Her loss means Julien cannot appreciate the beauty of the cimitetiere, the seasons or his young son. In his mind re replays his life and happier times. Can love live forever? Can Helene hear him? Will she respond to his pleas to go back in time…

With sensitive writing, Nicholas Barreau ( a non de plume for a Parisian writer who obviously knows the Montmartre area very well)

Arsène Lupin

Authors: Maurice LeBlanc and Edgar Jepson

Ahhh, Arsène Lupin – currently playing on Netflix as a series but the adventures that version of Lupin has are not like this original story of the gentleman thief.

Set in the early 1900’s in the French countryside this story of theft, daring, social classes and a time so far away from our current lives is lovely. It’s not the deepest story in the world but its easy to read, moves at a good pace and the characters are well developed. And it is clever.

It feels a bit like Wooster and Jeeves, that kind of era that feels so strange to us today. Lupin has far more emotional complexity than say, Sherlock Holmes, but he’s a charmer…

Ladies, watch out for your diamond necklaces…

Murder visits a French Village

Author: Susan C Shea

A Chateau in Burgundy Mystery

It started as an unlikely scenario – a young American woman’s husband dies, and she discovers he had secretly bought a derelict French chateau which he planned to renovate for her as a surprise. Oh, for a husband like that (but without the dying part).

And yet… I got completely into it!! The story was well written, with just enough detail to be obvious that Susan C Shea knows her France and enough personalisation of the leading lady to make her very relatable.

I enjoyed the descriptions fo village life (its good and bad), the pace of the story and the details that were involved in solving the murder.

Yes, I would look forward to reading more of this series. I even got the Google Map out to have a look at the exact places mentioned!!.

Others in the series include (from the book cover). They look like different characters in each book

Love and Death in Burgundy
Dressed for Death in Burgundy

Mastering the art of French murder

Author: Colleen Cambridge

I never fail to be impressed at authors creativity.

In this novel, Colleen Cambridge positions her heroine as a neighbour of Julia and Paul Childs living in Paris in 1949.

Tabitha Knight is a poor cook and enthusiastic to learn all she can from her talented neighbour Julia of ‘Mastering the Art of French Cooking’ fame. Après a party in the Childs apartment block where a young woman is murdered (using one of Julias favourite cooking knives no less!) and Tab and Julia are on the trail.

Between visits to the markets to stock up on the ingredients to make a perfect mayonnaise (Julia), visits to the theatre where the young lady worked (Tab), disastrous cooking experiences trying to make dinner for her uncles (Tab) and a rather good looking young French detective, the story rattles along.

The Man with the Lead Stomach

Author: Jean-Francois Parot

What a find this small series of books by Jean-François Parot is turning out to be.

Book one of the series (“The Chatelet Apprentice) introduces us to Nicholas Le Floch, an investigator working on behalf the Paris police and, in time, the King. An uneventful life growing up in Brittany has not prepared Le Floch for the intrigue and games of a changing Paris.

The author was by profession a diplomat and historian. His books are described as akin to time travel. The series is set in the 1760s, and you can smell the stench of the open sewers and hear the horses’ hooves. The characters are well drawn and not that different from those we know in our daily lives in this century.

The period detail was fascinating. Parisians Le Floch meets range from the lowest whores to the King himself. Great, innovative writing that was easy to read and very different to any novels about French detectives I have read to date.

And yes, making people eat lead was a form of punishment meted out in those days.

Recommended.

Joan

Author: Katherine J Chen

This is a good book. I know it’s a good book for me because I will think about it for a long time.

It will stay in my mind whilst I marvel at the ability to craft such a story, create such characters, and explain religious & geopolitical complexity so beautifully.

Chen does it by making this about Joan, the person.

Author: Ian Moore

Lights, Action, Camera…. MURDER

The stage is set for a murder at Château de Valençay in the Loire Valley. A full ensemble of actors, film set extras and those who do not appear as they seem is in place for this murder mystery.

Our hero is Richard, local English owner of the B&B where the main characters of the story are staying and his partner in deduction, Valerie, a French professional bounty hunter. They make a strange team but its exactly the team needed when the murders start happening.