Killer Critique

April 23, 2012
In chapter one of Campion’s delectable third culinary mystery set in Paris (after 2011’s Crime Fraîche), a camcorder carried by Gautier du Fesnay, “senior food critic for Le Figaro,” records his arrival at Chez Béatrice, an elegant Left Bank restaurant he’s reviewing, and his subsequent demise after swallowing a bite of poisoned lobster ravioli. Later, someone plunges a basting needle into the ear of Jean Monteil, another restaurant critic, at Dans le Noir, where “ supposedly blind maître d’ leads you into a completely dark room, and you get to spill mediocre food all over your shirtfront.” Commissaire Capucine Le Tellier has a personal reason to find the killer fast, since her wine and food expert husband, Alexandre de Huguelet, could become the next victim. The action builds to an unexpected conclusion amid fireworks atop the Eiffel Tower. Campion, himself a food critic who lived for years in Paris, offers descriptions of haute cuisine sure to please the most discriminating palates. Agent: Sharon Bowers, Miller Bowers Griffin Literary Management.

June 1, 2012

Parisian lead detective Capucine LeTellier (The Grave Gourmet) might be intrigued by the first murder of a food critic. But when a second critic dies in another restaurant, she's more than professionally concerned; her husband, Alexandre, is also a critic, and these are his friends being felled. When it becomes clear that a serial killer is staging these murders, Capucine must set a trap in order to save her husband. Teasing out the methods and the motive, while contending with the politics of interviewing suspects, keeps Capucine and her team on the run. VERDICT Campion's third Gallic series entry exudes an almost cozy vibe, but it's definitely a police procedural. Steeped in Parisian culture and class structure with plenty of food and fashion chatter, this mystery makes for a fine getaway read.

Copyright 2012 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

August 1, 2012
Someone is killing the most exacting food critics in Paris before they can even file their reviews. The first victim, Gautier du Fesnay of Le Figaro, ends up facedown in a bowl of ravioles d'homard after he's shot with a curare-enhanced projectile at heiress Beatrice Mesnagier's new restaurant Chez Beatrice. The second, Le Figaro's Jean Monteil, is stabbed with a basting needle as he sits in total darkness struggling to finish the gloppy bill of fare served at Dans Le Noir. The third, Arsene Peroche of Nouvel Observateur, is strangled and his mouth stuffed with his last course and then sewn shut at the ritual celebration of Diner en Blanc. Clearly, someone has a grudge against food critics. But doesn't that pretty much include everyone in Paris, certainly every restaurateur in the City of Light? Though she's assured her boss that she'll make an arrest within the week, Commissaire Capucine Le Tellier of the Police Judiciare (Crime Fraiche, 2011, etc.) hasn't a clue who's guilty, and interrogating the five high-living suspects who were demonstrably on the scene of the first two crimes (tout le monde turned out for the third) offers more badinage and food porn than enlightenment. Even when she allows her intuition to take over, her certainty about whodunit is unsupported by any evidence. Can she end the slaughter before the killer works his way down the list of Parisian food critics to her husband, Alexandre? Despite the overextended wrap-up, the mystery is as lightweight as the gustatory talk. There are no recipes: You couldn't prepare the grenadine de veau in a million years.

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June 1, 2012
Capucine Le Tellier's third adventure begins with a restaurant critic found dead in his soup. Navigating the thorny Parisian judicial system, Le Tellier struggles to discover the killer as more critics die. She worries that her husband, Alexandre, will be the next victim. Her cousin Jacques is in the intelligence business and connects her with an eccentric, food-loving profiler to help sort clues. She interviews restaurant-business friends, a famous starlet and her sugar daddy, and more food writers while uncovering another killer and secrets among her friends. Scenes at a Paris festival and at restaurants are interwoven among the well-paced mystery. This intelligent series combines enticing food references and police-procedural techniques while immersing the reader in Parisian life, a combination that will appeal to a diversity of readers. Devotees of G. M. Malliet and Charles Todd will especially enjoy this different and delicious series.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)