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Farfetched and frothy, this fourth in the detective series featuring Aristide Pamplemousse finds the corpulent Surete officer turned gastronomic investigator for Le Guide disguised as a blind man at Chateau Morgue, a health spa near the Pyrenees. Pamplemousse despairs of satisfied appetites for a fortnight, but his bloodhound Pommes Frites discovers kilos of sausage, and then Aristide himself discovers an affectionate English manicurist. While it becomes apparent that the regime at the spa show more covers some other activities, including murder and blackmail, not until the inspector rigs up a flying camera, utilizing helium and Pommes Frites's inflatable kennel hung with black silk lingerie, is the mystery of Chateau Morgue resolved. Though readers may have trouble following Pamplemousse's intricate thought processes and understanding exactly what was going on at Chateau Morgue, Pamplemousse and his faithful hound are an appealing pair and offer an evening of civilized entertainment. Bond is also the author of the Paddington Bear stories.. show less
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I'm not sure whether this was just a poor choice for me to begin reading this series with (although the choice was determined by book availability) or whether I would have found other stories in the series too far fetched and improbable too. Fans of the series will tell me that I should have found it all a hoot, but I didn't find it all that amusing.
The plot was complicated by the appearance of Monsieur Pamplemousse's doppelganger, the television personality Ananas on the train going down to the health spa, and then again at the spa itself. I presume he has made an appearance in earlier books.
Monsieur Pamplemousse seems to travel with an unlikely amount of equipment, photographic, cooking, notemaking as well as a blow up kennel for the show more blood hound Pommes Frites.
The blurb from Publisher's Weekly said
readers may have trouble following Pamplemousse's intricate thought processes and understanding exactly what was going on at Chateau Morgue
so it certainly sounds as if I was not an orphan. I certainly didn't manage to make the connections. The concept is without doubt a spoof on detective series. A quote on the back cover says "There is more than a touch of Peter Sellers". I was reminded myself of Alexander McCall Smith's Professor Dr Moritz-Maria von Igelfeld, although of course he is a much more recent creation.
If you are interested in checking the Pamplemousse series see this page at Fantastic Fiction.
Michael Bond of course was the person who gave us Paddington Bear. show less
The plot was complicated by the appearance of Monsieur Pamplemousse's doppelganger, the television personality Ananas on the train going down to the health spa, and then again at the spa itself. I presume he has made an appearance in earlier books.
Monsieur Pamplemousse seems to travel with an unlikely amount of equipment, photographic, cooking, notemaking as well as a blow up kennel for the show more blood hound Pommes Frites.
The blurb from Publisher's Weekly said
readers may have trouble following Pamplemousse's intricate thought processes and understanding exactly what was going on at Chateau Morgue
so it certainly sounds as if I was not an orphan. I certainly didn't manage to make the connections. The concept is without doubt a spoof on detective series. A quote on the back cover says "There is more than a touch of Peter Sellers". I was reminded myself of Alexander McCall Smith's Professor Dr Moritz-Maria von Igelfeld, although of course he is a much more recent creation.
If you are interested in checking the Pamplemousse series see this page at Fantastic Fiction.
Michael Bond of course was the person who gave us Paddington Bear. show less
Not my favorite of the Monsieur Pamplemousse books, since there's so little food in it. Still good, however, if you like the series.
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429+ Works 30,508 Members
Thomas Michael Bond was born in Newbury, Berkshire, England on January 13, 1926. He dropped out of school at the age of 14. During World War II, he served in both the Royal Air Force and the British Army. He sold his first short story in 1945 to the magazine London Opinion. Over the next decade, he had numerous short stories published and radio show more plays performed. After the war, he joined the BBC Radio and later worked for BBC-TV as a cameraman from 1947 to 1965. He gave his wife a teddy bear for Christmas in 1956. She it named Paddington after the London train station near their home. His first book, A Bear Called Paddington, was published in 1958. He became a full-time author in 1965. He wrote more than 25 Paddington books including Paddington Here and Now and Paddington's Finest Hour. He chronicled his life with Paddington in his autobiography, Bears and Forebears. His other works included A Day by the Sea, Something Nasty in the Kitchen, and Monsieur Pamplemousse and the Carbon Footprint. He was made an officer of the Order of the British Empire in 1997 and then a commander of the order in 2015, for services to children's literature. He died after a short illness on June 27, 2017 at the age of 91. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
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Common Knowledge
- Canonical title*
- Monsieur Pamplemousse blickt durch
- Original title
- Monsieur Pamplemousse takes the cure
- Original publication date
- 1988
- People/Characters
- Aristide Pamplemousse; Pommes Frites (dog)
- Important places
- Paris, France
- First words*
- "Entrez!"
- Last words*
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)Und obwohl er bemerkte, dass Monsieur Pamplemousse aus irgendeinem, wohl nur ihm selbst begreiflichen Grund, diese Meinung nicht vollends zu teilen schien, sagte ihm sein Instinkt, dass es nur eine Frage der Zeit war, bis sein Herr ebenso dachte.
- Original language*
- Englisch
*Some information comes from Common Knowledge in other languages. Click "Edit" for more information.
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- Members
- 99
- Popularity
- 326,682
- Reviews
- 2
- Rating
- (3.41)
- Languages
- English, German
- Media
- Paper, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 9
- ASINs
- 4
