Lead Review (Death and Fromage)
- Book: Death and Fromage
- Location: Loire Valley (Vallée de la Loire)
- Author: Ian Moore
This is the second outing for Richard Ainsworth, the first novel in the series was Death and Croissants (and coming March 2025 is Death in Le Jardin).
The author is a leading stand-up comedian (who lives in rural France) and the publisher is Farrago, whose strapline is “fiction to make you smile”.
Richard is a middle-aged Englishman, who runs a B&B in fictional Val de Follet, in the Loire Valley. His role in the village is one of an “exotic-ish foreigner”, who straddles his English characteristics whilst asserting his French credentials.
It’s all gone wild in this beautiful part of France, the local restaurant is shamefully downgraded, losing a Michelin star, and the leading goat’s cheese supplier, Fabrice Ménard, has drowned himself in one of his pasteurisation tanks.
Valérie d’Orçay, who happens to be staying at the B&B, is hardly ever without her ultimate accessory, a straw bag containing her little dog, Passepartout. She is not convinced that the cheese-maker’s death is suicide and together they determine to get to the truth.
An entertaining romp which features an awful lot of French tropes – old Citroëns and 2CVs, men in blue overalls (“..the country’s main proletarian uniform..”) and there are stereotypes (not only French!) aplenty.
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