A Murder Most French

February 1, 2024

Cambridge delighted readers with her cozy historical mystery and LibraryReads pick, Mastering the Art of French Murder, featuring Julia Child and her fictional friend Tabitha Knight in postwar Paris. In the second richly set "An American in Paris" title, the women are searching for a killer after a chef at Le Cordon Bleu cooking school is poisoned. Prepub Alert.

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February 15, 2024
More accurately, Four Murders Most French, since none of the homicides entangling Julia Child's circle in postwar Paris seems any more Gallic than the others. Joining Julia at a tasting during a monthly meeting of her wine club at L'�cole du Cordon Bleu, her neighbor, friend, and amanuensis Tabitha Knight is on hand to watch Chef Richard Beauch�ne taste his very last wine, an 1893 Volnay Clos de la Rougeotte that he samples just before keeling over. Cyanide, thinks Tabitha, whose determination to stay away from anymore murders is on a collision course with her sense that she's channeling Agatha Christie. Although Inspecteur �tienne Merveille wholeheartedly endorses her reluctance to get involved, she's left with little choice after she recognizes Louis Loyer at another event as the chef who was arguing with Beauch�ne on the evening of his last libation only moments before Loyer uncorks an 1871 Sauternes that turns out to be his last round as well. Assuming that the two poisonings (more will follow) can't be a coincidence, Tabitha wonders if it's a coincidence that she's been on the scene for both of them and begins to make a cautious list of other people who were present for both deaths. Considering that she's not much more interested in the suspects than her author, Tabitha does a highly effective job of identifying the culprit and tipping her hand in a way that forces her once again to employ her Swiss Army knife to rescue herself from certain death. Neither the characters nor the mystery makes nearly as much of an impression as the setting and the cuisine.

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March 11, 2024
Julia Child returns in Cambridge’s sprightly second cozy featuring the legendary chef (after Mastering the Art of French Murder), who once again asks her American expat neighbor, Tabitha Knight, to help solve a mystery—this time, a series of wine-based slayings in 1950s Paris. During a cooking demonstration at L’École du Cordon Bleu, where Julia studies French cuisine, a famous chef dies after taking a sip of Volnay Clos de la Rouge from the rare 1893 vintage. Toxicology reports indicate that cyanide is the culprit—but who would add poison to such a precious wine? When a string of other figures in the Parisian culinary scene also die from poisoned vino, Julia taps Tabitha to flex her formidable powers of deduction, decipher clues, and risk her life and limb to ferret out the culprit. While fair-play fans will have plenty of fun following along with the friends’ investigations, it’s Julia’s sensuous recipes, lusciously described visits to the market, and fascinating tour of a subterranean mushroom farm that give this book its tantalizing flavor. The results will satisfy foodies, armchair travelers, and old-fashioned mystery lovers alike. Agent: Maura Kye-Casella, Don Congdon Assoc.