Cosy mystery set in Paris (Travel Can Be Murder series)

22nd April 2020

Death by Baguette by Jennifer S Alderson, cosy mystery set in Paris.

This is the second volume in the Travel Can Be Murder series by Jennifer S Alderson. It is “A Valentine’s Day Murder in Paris”.

Lana Hansen will be taking a tour group to Paris, to coincide with Valentine’s Day. She has started dating a slightly older man. At an early romantic picnic they share that both of them are shortly to be out of town and both look forward to picking up with each other when they get back.

Once in Paris she meets up with her group and has a discombobulating encounter with one of the group. The tourists comprise several couples and in order to fill numbers, her personal friends Jane and Willow have come along. They are at an argumentative point in their couple relationship, debating whether to become parents and wondering whether Jane, as a medic, is working too hard. Lana has to try and manage their bickering; yet another task for a very busy and committed tour guide. She also has to manage Randy, her rookie guide, who is learning the ropes from her.

However, these are simple matters compared to the group dynamics. One man in particular seems to be rather tyrannical, a gourmet who is known to write excoriating reviews which send his victims over the edge. Another couple, she discovers, are now new age folk – and are very good at the healing crystal thing – but she inadvertently discovers that this is only a recent incarnation. Do they have something to hide, she wonders? They clearly have a ‘different’ history which is at odds with the image they are promoting on this tour.

The author quite obviously delights in literary travel, enabling her readers to really travel by book and enjoy visiting the sights of Paris. This is great armchair travel, from a cruise on the Seine to the Marché des Enfants Rouge, to the Jardin Des Plantes and a day trip to Chartres. And her group enjoys a French baking course, of course! It is at a picnic in the Champ de Mars by the Eiffel Tower that Lana is required to test her mettle. One of her group dies. Naturally the police have to get involved and there are many grudges and motives festering away in her group. Can there really be a murderer among them?

If you like the stories of M C Beaton and the Marion Chesny Agatha Raisin series, then the Travel Can Be Murder series is waiting for you!

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