Capucine Le Tellier is a police Commissaire in Paris. She
thinks she's going on vacation to visit her Uncle in her
family's ancestral manor house, but she just can't seem to
take a break from crime. Her uncle is convinced that a
recent accident during a partridge shoot was actually
murder. And when other accidents start happening in the
same circle of people, Capucine starts to agree. She sees
this case as a chance to reconcile with her family, who are
still having a hard time adjusting to her having become a
police officer, and to show how a local girl has made good
in the big city. But the local police aren't exactly
helpful, and there's another big case calling her back to
Paris. What's a girl to do? The characters are complex,
as is the mystery.
Though born a New Yorker, Campion has spent much of his
life in Paris, and this rings through in the text. We find
ourselves transported from there to the French countryside,
savoring the apples of Normandy as we go. Campion is also
a food critic, like Capucine's husband, which
no doubt helps make the character of Alexandre believable.
And a great deal of this book is about the food. From
finding it (on mushroom foraging trips and partridge
hunts), to preparing it (especially in having the mushrooms
checked to make sure no one has picked a poison) to
enjoying it (from sumptuous steak feasts to clandestine
dinners), these characters certainly have food on the
brain. This is the second book in the Capucine Culinary
Mystery series, and Campion has posted a number of the
recipes from the first book on his web site. We can only
hope he follows suit with some of the delectable offerings
from this one.
Taking a break from the hustle and bustle of Paris, French
detective Capucine Le Tellier and her portly food critic
husband, Alexandre, visit Capucine's family's manor home in
Normandy. Arriving at the height of the pheasant hunting
season, idyllic picnic lunches and mushrooming trips in the
forest are interrupted by a series of hunting accidents that
claim the lives of several employees from the local cattle
ranch, famed for its exquisite beef. Suspecting foul play,
Capucine delves into local affairs only to find her
investigation stymied by the local police force. And as the
case unravels, Capucine and Alexandre uncover romantic
intrigues gone awry and dangerous, deadly resentments...
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