Death and Croissants

Sometimes you need to read a book that will make you chuckle and leave you with a smile on your face. I'm not even sure where I came across Ian Moore's Death and Croissants, the first in his Follet Valley mystery series, but I am glad I did for the light-hearted escapism that this caper in light, cozy mystery form provided me.

Richard Ainsworth is a middle aged Englishman who runs a bed and breakfast in the French countryside. He is a former film historian and sees much of his life through the lens of his favorite films. Not that his life is nearly that interesting. He is eminently forgettable and his fondest wish is to live a quiet life, blending in with the wallpaper. This becomes an unfortunate desire when one of his guests show more disappears, leaving behind nothing beyond smashed glasses and a bloody handprint on that wallpaper. Richard would prefer to ignore this turn-up but another of his guests, the very attractive Valérie D'Orçay, convinces him to investigate the disappearance and possible murder. What follows is not exactly madcap but it has a similar feel to it and Richard hasn't felt so alive since his estranged wife left him. Richard is very much the bumbling sidekick to Valérie's intrepid investigator but his offhand and unthinking musings do inspire her to work towards solving the mystery.

The cast of characters here is truly bananas: middle aged swingers, Mafia hitmen, identical twins who hate each other, a dog in a purse, 3 hens named for famous sirens of the silver screen, an ineffective French policeman, a terrifying French cleaning lady, and more. Moore has populated his giggle inducing mystery with tongue in cheek clichés and outlandish characters but he gets away with all of it. It is pure entertainment to watch Richard try to juggle his not exactly ex wife, the manipulative and secretive but kindly femme fatale, and his outraged adult daughter even as he tries to take over the direction of his own life. I thoroughly enjoyed this humorous and charmingly quirky romp, even though I sometimes felt as lost as Richard was. This is the perfect book to read when you want a lighthearted book to carry you along on a lively adventure. show less

Complicated…but with its own charm!

My heads still spinning from the idea of a slightly outdated gentleman running a B&B in the Loire Valley.
I must admit Moore’s opening salvo on muesli was a hoot. One I all to readily concur with.
“Muesli…rejected budgie food!”
Richard Ainsworth is a middle aged, fractious man who’s all charm on the outside and seemingly a curmudgeon on the inside. (Or does he just go through life on a slightly different plane to others?) He’s a film historian which probably answers all questions about his jaded, ennui bordering on mécontent attitude.
His hen’s have movie star names, Lana Turner, Joan Crawford, and Ava Gardner. He’s bullied it seems, by his staff he more or less inherited from his show more former or not? wife Clare.
When his cleaner finds a man’s handprint in blood on the wall of one of the guest bedrooms Richard tries to explain it away as a child’s painting. He wants to immeadiately eradicate it. His cleaner (eye roll please) Madame Tablier and his new guest, Valérie d’Orçay,an elegant and seemingly languid woman won’t hear of it.
All Richard wants to do is hide in plain sight and be left alone. Mais non, he has “blood on the walls and a missing guest.”
Along with Richard, I’m thinking what fresh hell is this, and have a lingering suspicion I’ve wandered into Fawlty Tower’s sister establishment.
I rather liked Richard’s attempts at stoicism, with his overblown yet understated (can you do both?) approach to all things.
Anyway it seems a murder might have taken place but, as the tale gathers steam, it also gathers quite a cast. What happened becomes complicated by the what might have been, being trumped by the what actually did. The pace picks up as does the danger.
Well written, with some gems. Not quite my cup of tea, although for cozy mystery fans, surprising and a bit of a hoot.

A Poisoned Pen Press ARC via NetGalley.
Please note: Quotes taken from an advanced reading copy maybe subject to change show less

The plot is bonkers and doesn't always make sense but the quirky, side-line humor is so smoothly delivered, it can be easy to miss. Richard, the main character, is often just as clueless as the reader about what's going on but benefits more than he expected by sticking with the glamorous Valerie, and her little dog Passepartour, to investigate the bizarre case of a man who left behind a bloody handprint at Richard's B&B and who may or may not be missing or dead.

When an intriguing Frenchwomen upsets Richard’s ho hum life as an innkeeper during her visit to the Loire Valley he finds himself living out his wildest noire film fantasies as they search for a missing guest with mafia ties. An entertaining and complex mystery that while slow at times, proved to be worth the effort!

Death and Croissants by Ian Moore reminded me of an English Janet Evanovich. There were tons of wacky characters and some crazy moments, but it was a bit more reserved in regards to the laughs than Evanovich would have been, and that gave the book even more charm.

Richard and Valerie are an unlikely combo for being friends, let alone solving a mystery, but they work well together. Valerie brings urgency to Richard’s laid back manner and Richard often ,unintentionally, says something that helps Valerie figure out something in regards to solving the case.

While they both seem to be attractive and intelligent people I really hope that Moore decides to keep them as friends and doesn’t delve into a romance with them. While I enjoy that show more type of tension and have been known to read some really steamy books, I don’t feel like every male/female relationship needs to have that…. But that is just a personal opinion and if Moore did decide to go in that direction I would still continue reading, and I’m looking forward to Death at the Chateau ​when it comes out later this year. show less

Book 173 - Ian Moore - Death and Croissants

I loved his first novella ‘The Case of the Beached Mermaid’…funny..clever …and very very silly. Unfortunately ‘Death and Croissants’ suffers from Richard Osman second novel syndrome. It is all over the show…a complete mess…from witty replace with idiotic…from real characters we can empathise with to stereotypes that are frankly embarrassing.

I tried to like the book and indeed wanted to…but I just couldn’t.

The worst part was…it started so well…a first chapter that dripped charm…that oozed the idiosyncratic cleverness that was so obvious from the first book. Indeed the end of the first chapter finished with the cleaner complaining to Richard, the owner of the B n B, show more that she will clean most things but draws the line at blood…cue credits.

We do learn more about the other characters but as with the sequel to Osman’s ‘The Thursday Murder Club’…’The Man who Died Twice’…Moore’s book is just too violent…for what it purports to be…a comfy mystery.

It almost redeems itself in the final third…more wit and logic and warmth in the last three or four chapters than in the rest of the book…almost…but not quite enough…

So disappointing. show less

This is a quirky mystery, with an anti-social Bed and Breakfast owner who gets caught up in a mystery of of a missing man. His guest, Valerie d'Orcay, pulls him along, breaking rules, generally being over the top.

as a mystery, Its pretty average. The fun is in HOW the mystery happens. A set of brothers, one a retired judge, another a retired gangster. Competing bounty hunters, slaughtered chickens, and a bloody handprint, that started the whole thing.