A MURDER MOST FRENCH by Colleen Cambridge
I picked up this book because Julia Child is a character! It was so good I’m hungry for more (sorry, could not resist.)
Tabitha Knight is a 30-something American who finds herself in Paris in 1950, keeping house for her elderly grandfather and his male companion. Tabitha doesn't know how to cook, having been busy working in an aircraft factory during the war and teaching afterwards, but luckily the ebullient Julia Child lives across the street and is happy to be both teacher and guide to Parisian food markets.
The two Americans attend a cooking demonstration at the Cordon Bleu. The starring chef begins by opening a gift bottle of wine, sips, and dies in front of the audience.
Cause of death? Cyanide poisoning.
Zut alors!
The very next day, another chef is killed in the same exact way at a private party. Someone had sent a gift bottle of rare wine, wrapped in the same colorful silk cloth as the bottle the first chef had received.
It turns out that before the war, the two men had worked together at a famous restaurant. Closed since the Nazi occupation of Paris, they
had planned to reopen it. Of course, now that they're both dead, it will remain shuttered.
Tabitha witnessed both deaths and is drawn into the investigation, much to the annoyance of the local police inspector.
Throughout the drama, Julia Child takes Tabitha to the market and teaches her to cook as they discuss dead chefs,
mysterious bottles of wine, underground mushroom farms, and more enticing plot elements..
This is one of the best written books I've encountered recently. Tabitha is an appealing narrator. The book doesn’t overdo the cooking angle or take an Inspector Clouseau approach to French law enforcement. It's peppered with French expressions, foodie lore, and an extremely realistic portrayal of Julia Child,
who breezily refers to her young friend as Tabs.
The Nazi occupation is only 5 years in the past. The French are still struggling to repair life and limb after years of Nazi domination, a situation that contributes to solving the crime.
Highly recommended.
