Death on the Riviera

John Bude’s Death on the Riviera proves as clever and charming as his previous novels. I simply can’t get enough of Scotland Yard Superintendent William Meredith and his adventures. In this one, Meredith heads to the French Riviera along with Sergeant Freddy Strang to get his hands on an English bank-note forger who has been printing near-perfect pound and franc notes. Of course, Meredith gets his man, but not before he tumbles on to a most ingenious murder and ferrets out various other secrets. As always, Bude makes the novel both suspenseful and amusing.

British Library Publishing, in conjunction with Poison Pen Press, has been re-releasing Bude’s wonderful novels, and they can’t release them fast enough for me!

If a book is going to be called “Death on the Riviera”, I expect the death to be front and centre, preferably within the first two chapters. However, in this book, the death doesn’t take place until page 176 (of 242). Instead, it’s mostly about a counterfeiting ring with an English connection that gives Superintendent Meredith and Sergeant Strang an excuse to lap up the delights of the Riviera. I actually quite like Meredith as a character and enjoyed his interactions with Strang and the French police, but this installment in his series was not my favourite.

This rating is a 2 for the story itself and an extra 0.5 for the beautiful cover on the British Library Crime Classics edition.

When the title of a mystery contains the word Death, you expect a murder to happen pretty soon. Except when it is a British one of course.

Originally written in 1952, "Death on the Riviera" shows its age both in its setting and story line. But unlike some of the other books of that era, this does not make it sound dated... at least not too much.

At the start of the novel, DI Meredith from Scotland Yard and Sergeant Strang had traveled to France, trying to catch a known criminal. In the meantime, Nesta Hedderwick, an English woman that owns a villa on the Riviera, collects a weird set of characters in her house - an artist, a young man that she seems to be favoring for some reason, a young woman who is in love with the young man and a show more niece (not to count all the help of course). And when Bill Dillon shows up and get invited into the house, things start getting complicated. As with every mystery of that time, noone is exactly what he seems to be.

Meredith and Strang (and a motley crew of French policemen) go after the group that distributes the counterfeiter money and the house affairs finally end up with a dead body (after more than 2/3rd of the book is gone).

At the end, it is the Englishmen that solve the mystery of course (not without going in a few wring directions first). And they take their time telling everyone about it - the good old style of collecting everyone in a room and telling them what happened (this time without the bad guys).

It is an enjoyable story - even though it is the 18th in the series, it is a standalone story and I did not miss any of the backstory. The world of the wealthy English that stay at the Riviera for months is fascinating - and even if when it was written it was just part of the story, today it is a fascinating window to the past. It is not a perfect story by any means - a lot of the coincidences and the things people do not notice to add up at the end. But I would definitely read more stories by Bude - he may not be one of the great masters of the genre but he is a worthy author. show less

Recommended reading.

Inspector Meredith lands a plum assignment to go from wintry England in February to the sunny French Riviera in order to track down a forger who is counterfeiting French bank notes. Along with his sergeant and with the co-operation of the French police, he “follows the money” and soon gets a lead to the counterfeiting ring. Along the way he helps the French capture a cigarette smuggling ring. His investigations lead to a group of ex-pats living with a wealthy British widow --- each of them seems to be connected to either the counterfeiting or the cigarette smuggling.

Halfway through the book, when the smuggling and counterfeiting cases are in hand, the story turns to a suspicious death. It turns out that a show more romantic triangle has developed amongst the expat group. One of the men turns up dead, but it is not immediately clear which man is the victim. The solution to this puzzle is the mystery. Not only is it whodunit, but who got it done to them?

The story is told at a languid pace, which suits the Riviera location. Meredith flits between Menton, Nice, Monaco and Beaulieu having nice lunches. Not a bad life!
. show less

"Death on the Riviera" was originally published in 1952 by Macdonald, UK. It has been reissued by Poisoned Pen Press in collaboration with the British library as a "British Library Crime Classic".

For this tale Mr. Bude brings back Inspector Meredith of the C.I.D. who had been introduced in an earlier book. Inspector Meredith and his assistant are sent to the Riviera to help the French investigate a counterfeiting scheme that is passing bad GBPound notes along the French coast. A second story line involves jealousy and murder amongst the expats living in the area. The two plots intertwine around the question of whether the murderers and victims are part of the counterfeiting gang.

"Death on the Riviera" is rather fun but offers some show more challenges to readers. The dialogue is not of a modern style at all. Some of the slang is not only out of date but in several instances I got the feeling that perhaps the UK and US uses were different. Overall the writing seems breezy and offhand for a detective story. For instance, in the middle of a suspense-filled discussion that has begun to unravel the central mystery, the detectives take a 10 minute break to have an aperitif.

Readers not from the UK may not know that for quite a while after the war, British tourists were subject to Exchange Controls and not allowed to take much money out of the country. At the time this story is set, the limit was only £50, which, while admittedly was worth a lot more then, still did not go far on the Riviera. The funny money boys counted on doing business with cash-strapped tourists.

Inspector Meredith's command of French seemed to slide up and down the scale. It isn't good enough to conduct interrogations, but somehow he gleans info when the plot demands and there is quite a bit of vital information pushed into the story from unseen sources. It's a little contrived when Inspector Meredith says something like, "Ah yes, I have not had time to tell you that the Bell Captain told me earlier this morning that the suspect was wearing purple socks just like these." The rather unlikely solution to the murder mystery comes out of the blue based on an inquiry Inspector Meredith conducts off-screen.

So this isn't a great mystery by modern standards but Mr. Bude was an immensely popular writer. The book is full of memorable crooks, chance encounters, love, honor and wine and should be read in the spirit of 1952.

I received a review copy of "Death on the Riviera" by John Bude aka. Ernest Carpenter Elmore (Poisoned Pen) through NetGalley.com. show less

English mystery of the last century

The language structure here definitely reflects the 50's origins of this novel. An interesting look into writing in that era. The English detectives' journey to France, the tracking down of the forgerer and then other criminal happenings hold one in suspense, worthy of Sherlock Holmes. A tad 'golly gosh' mixed in with Boy's Own Magazine daring-do's and sleuthing.
All the usual suspects with a couple of unusual ones thrown in for good measure.
Enjoyable, with amusingly archaic turns of phrases as seen from sixty or so years on.

A NetGalley ARC

While Inspector Meredith and Sergeant Strang are on the Riviera to find a suspected currency forger, they don't fail to notice that the Riviera in February is a heck of a lot nicer than London in February. An enjoyable 1952 murder mystery from British Library Crime Classics.