Murder in Cannes by Susan Kiernan-Lewis
A beer brewing memoir set in CORNWALL
Ten Great Books set in Cannes
4th July 2024
Cannes, a French Riviera gem, stuns with its crescent bay, golden beaches, and glamorous vibe. Ten great books set in Cannes.
Beyond the red carpets of its famed film festival, it offers historic charm, bustling markets, and delectable cuisine. Yachts bob in the harbour, while luxury shops line the famed La Croisette. Whether strolling the seaside promenade or exploring the Lérins Islands,Cannes promises a touch of French magic.
Here are ten great books are set in the town and its surroundings.
French Coast by Anita Hughes
Serena has the job she’s always dreamed of and Chase, the man her heart never dared to. As a new editor at Vogue, she bags the biggest interview of the year with Yvette Renault, the infamous former editor of French Vogue, in The Carlton-InterContinental Hotel during the Cannes Film Festival. She eagerly jets off to France while Chase stays home, working with her father, a former senator, on his upcoming mayoral campaign. Everything feels unbelievably perfect…until it doesn’t. The hotel loses her reservation hours before her big interview. Serena fears that she’ll have to go home without her story, but then she meets Zoe, a quirky young woman staying in the suite below Yvette’s who invites Serena to stay with her. Serena is grateful for her mysterious roommate’s generosity, but it seems that there’s more to her story than meets the eye. To make matters worse, soon after arriving in Cannes, Serena learns a shocking secret about her parents’ marriage, and it isn’t long before she begins to question her own relationship. With her deadline looming and pressure mounting, Serena will have to use her investigative journalism skills, new friendships, and a little luck to get her life back on track.
Catch Me If You Cannes by Lisa Dickenson
The first part in this hilarious four-part romantic comedy, from the author of You Had Me at Merlot and The Twelve Dates of Christmas – winner of the Novelicious Debut of the Year award.
Jess has decided it’s time to get out of her comfort zone and live a little. So when her best friend Bryony, a journalist on a gossip magazine, is sent to cover the Cannes Film Festival, Jess decides to seize the day and go along for the ride. Two weeks of glitz, glamour and exclusive entry into celeb-filled parties is just the kind of adventure Jess needs.
Reality soon bites though when Jess and Bryony find they’re staying in a dingy hotel far away from all the action and Bryony’s expenses budget barely covers a glass of local wine. Undeterred, the two women are determined to live like the elite and enjoy one fancy night out to begin their holiday. So what if they have to tell a few white lies along the way? It’s just this once. No harm done . . . right?
Full of hilarious one-liners, sparkling blue seas and plenty of romantic moments, Catch Me If You Cannes is the story of two friends, a few white lies and one extremely delicious man.
Rendez-Vous in Cannes by Jennifer Bohnet
Behind the parties and the champag bne at the glitzy, glamorous Cannes Film Festival, two very different women are starring in their own real-life dramas. Will Anna, newly in love with Leo, be able to reconcile her present-day happiness with the unhappy past that had its beginnings at a long-ago film festival? And what about Daisy, who is coming to terms with being single? Here at the festival she has reached a fork in the road – which way will she turn? Throw in an unhappy mother, an ex-lover and an illegitimate child, and the two women could be living the script of the next Cannes blockbuster. One thing’s for sure – by the end of the film festival both their lives will have changed forever.
Return to the Olive Farm by Carol Drinkwater
After sixteen months of travelling round the Mediterranean in search of the ancient secrets of the olive tree, Carol returns to her beloved olive farm in the south of France, to her husband Michel and his burgeoning family. However, the homecoming celebrations are overshadowed by disturbing discoveries.
The plight of the honey bee has become an international crisis and Carol is faced with unsettling news about the hives on her own olive farm.
While the multinational companies are pushing for ‘bigger, better, bumper’ crops, a small band of farmers and ecologists are calling for a halt to many of the modern farming malpractices that are endangering the planet. Carol is amongst them. But it puts her own farm, her idyll, under threat. At what point do you turn your back on all that you believe in and all that you have been fighting for?
This is the story of how Carol and Michel struggle with some difficult choices, and how they decide to deal with the unavoidable disappointments and inevitable responsibilities that come with running an organic farm.
The Winner Stands Alone by Paulo Coelho
The story is set during the Cannes International Film Festival and the entire action plays out over 24 hours. Igor is a wealthy Russian businessman. His wife Ewa left him two years ago and Igor has never really come to terms with their break up, especially as Ewa is now remarried to a famous fashion designer, Hamid Hussein. Igor is insanely jealous and when Ewa left him he told her that he would destroy ‘whole worlds’ in order to get her back, and he intends to keep his promise…
Igor has followed Ewa and her new husband to Cannes and his plan is to cause as much violence and destruction as possible until Ewa realises how much he loves her and comes back to him. Ewa loved Igor but she was absolutely terrified of him. She knows that Igor has killed people in the past when he was a soldier, but she also knows a dark secret – that he once cold bloodedly murdered a beggar who was bothering them in a restaurant. Igor is clearly unhinged and he will stop at nothing to regain her love and so he goes on a ruthless killing spree until he tracks down Ewa…
The star-studded film festival acts as a backdrop to Igor’s maniacal murdering spree and we are ntroduced to various characters along the way, all of whom are desperately trying to get their big break in the shallow world of show business; Gabriela a young and naive actress who is being exploited by her agent and Jasmine a troubled young Rwandan refugee working as a model.
The Winner Stands Alone is a gripping, fast-paced thriller, and Coelho cleverly weaves in elements of social satire, poking fun at our celebrity and money obsessed culture
Couples Retreat by Lorraine Brown
Two writers. One pressing deadline. No time for romance…
Scarlett and Theo have one bestselling novel to their names: the psychological thriller they wrote together years ago. None of the books they’ve written separately have sold anywhere near as well…
Now at risk of being dropped by their respective publishers, their agent tells them that working together is the only way to save their careers and sends them off on a writers’ retreat in the south of France.
It wouldn’t be the worst way to spend a summer…except that they’ve accidentally been booked on a couples retreat instead, and spending so much time together stirs up some very inconvenient feelings!
With their careers on the line and a pressing deadline, romance is the last thing on their minds…
Murder in Cannes by Susan Kiernan-Lewis
Summer on the Côte d’Azur means tan bodies, wide beaches and glamorous nightclubs throbbing with vitality from the rich and beautiful. So when Maggie Newberry arranges to meet an old boyfriend at the International Advertising Festival in Cannes it’s no surprise she begins to feel the seduction of her old life. But amidst the glamor, the beautiful clothes and brilliant creative work on display there is also the side of the business Maggie had forgotten was always there too. The petty rivalries, the dirty deals, the betrayals, are all still there front and center. When the back stabbing turns literal and the wife of Maggie’s childhood friend is accused of the murder, Maggie knows she has to help. Along the way she’ll need to fight the police, her husband Laurent, and even her own natural instincts about who she is now and the life she left behind. She’ll learn the hard way that the treachery rife in her old industry has since ramped up to a whole new level—one that the quiet life as a vignernon’s wife has not at all prepared her for…and one that could very well get her killed.
The Case of the Missing Madonna by Lin Anderson
Private investigator Patrick de Courvoisier unearths a shocking wartime secret in this stylish Cannes-based mystery series.
Brother Robert from the abbey on St Honorat, a picturesque island off the French coast, has requested Patrick de Courvoisier’s help in locating a valuable painting which has disappeared from the monastery’s vaults.
At the same time, an old enemy from Patrick’s past has arrived in Cannes in search of a different stolen painting. As it becomes increasingly clear that the two investigations are linked, Patrick’s enquiries lead him to uncover a shocking wartime secret: a secret the British Royal family would prefer to keep hidden…
Striptease by Georges Simenon
Celita is a stripper at the Monico, a nightclub in Cannes. She is also the long-standing mistress of Monsieur Leon, the owner of the Monico. She has enjoyed her struggle to win him away from his wife, Madame Florence, and she is determined that he shall be her recompense for the tragedies and injustices life has so far offered her.
Maud is a new stripper and her act of innocence makes her a star overnight and Celita at once realises that her hold over Leon is threatened.
Such is Simenon’s artistry that we come to admire and sympathise with Celita in her almost schoolgirl spitefulness and jealousy towards Maud. Celita and Madame Florence even become close but nothing prepares us for the violent and startling denouement to this tragic story.
The Girl from the Grand Hotel by Camille Aubray
The #1 bestselling author of Cooking for Picasso and The Godmothers returns with The Girl from the Grand Hotel, a dazzling historical novel that brings readers into the glamorous world of the first (and doomed) Cannes Film Festival and the deadly atmosphere of Europe on the brink of war.
Summer 1939. The glittering Côte d’Azur is having a particularly brilliant season, as the world’s wealthiest vacationers collide with Hollywood’s illustrious movie stars for the first-ever film festival on the French Riviera.
Into this hothouse playground comes an American named Annabel Faucon. Having left a dead-end job and a broken heart back in New York, she’s escaped to a summer stint at the fabulous Grand Hotel, where her uncle is the manager. But when a major movie studio brings its flock of stars to stay at the hotel, Annabel is handpicked to “keep an eye on” two of the mysterious arrivals: a screenwriter who’s been “in his cups” and a renegade actor who keeps luring the studio’s female star into his independent productions.
The arrival of Nazi guests only intensifies the situation. Suddenly everyone is watching everybody else during this feverish last summer before the outbreak of World War II. Faced with international spies who will stop at nothing to get what they want, Annabel finds herself embroiled in murder, intrigue, and a race against the clock to disrupt a secret Nazi communications system.
Inspired by true events and the histories of three great hotels on the Côte d’Azur–with appearances by such real-life luminaries as Marlene Dietrich, F. Scott Fitzgerald, James Cagney, and Mae West–The Girl from the Grand Hotel is a brilliant page-turner that is not to be missed.
Enjoy your books set in Cannes!
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