DEATH AND CROISSANTS, by Ian Moore. Poisoned Pen Press, imprint of Sourcebooks, 2021, 2023.
This cozy mystery novel offers memorable characters and wry British humor, but not much of a compelling mystery. Richard Ainsworth, a Brit raising hens and running a bed and breakfast in the Loire Valley of France is bored with life. His marriage is falling apart. His hens are fighting with each other. And his irritable housekeeper, who came with the place, Madame Tablier, disapproves of his every move. The highlight of his day, besides the booze, is an afternoon nap.
Suddenly, there’s a bloody handprint on the wallpaper in a guest room, a pair of bloodied or broken spectacles in the trash, and a missing guest. Other guests, a young Italian couple the Rizzolis, promptly depart. But the glamours French Valerie d’Orcay, with her purse pooch Passpartout, stays and insists that the mystery of the missing man must be solved, and Richard must help her do it.
In no time, one of Richard’s hens is murdered, outpacing all other concerns, including the notion that the missing man was involved with the mafia, the young woman who cleaned his house and her boyfriend are being followed, and the Italian couple, the Rizzolis, are now staying at a swingers bed and breakfast with perverted Brits that Richard prefers to avoid.
“How had it come to this? Richard Ainsworth, scourge of international organized crime and staunch defender of the victims of assassination? He wore his glasses on a string around his neck for God’s sakes.”
ANALYSIS
Richard feels unwittingly pulled into the intrigue without much interest in the action because of the forceful personality of Valerie. It’s much the same for the readers, in my opinion—pulled in by the characters’ personalities. Richard is funny. Valerie is mesmerizing “like Catherine Deneuve.” Madame Tablier is a gem in the rough. All the other characters pull their weight. But the mystery isn’t all that interesting. And the solution is rather bland, about people we don’t really care about.
Oh yeah—the title is meaningless. There is only one incident where croissants are mentioned and it is totally irrelevant to the main action of the mystery.
Fun movie references and mid-life crisis angst, so recommended for Anglophiles and older readers looking for a fun flight of fancy; but don’t expect too much.
Three stars. ***