Fleur de Lies

March 10, 2014
France’s coastal region of Normandy, site of the D-Day landings, provides the setting for Hunter’s lackluster ninth travel-related mystery (after 2013’s Bonnie of Evidence). Emily Andrew Miceli, co-owner of the Destinations Travel Company, is leading a group of Iowan senior citizens on a Seine barge tour. The quirky passenger list includes Woody and Cal Jolly, father-and-son proprietors, respectively, of Jolly’s Funeral Home, and cosmetics sales rep Jackie, who was formerly Emily’s husband, Jack, before gender reassignment surgery. Hunter has a field day with the alternately snarky and insincere interactions between Jackie and her three fellow sales reps, all top performers enjoying the cruise compliments of their employer, cosmetics giant Mona Michelle. When one of the reps, Krystal, falls—or is pushed—off a cliff, tension among the already incompatible passengers escalates. Evocative descriptions of rugged Normandy scenery and Monet’s gardens at Giverny highlight this otherwise weakly plotted cozy. Agent: Irene Goodman, Irene Goodman Agency.

March 15, 2014
The death of a cosmetics sales rep upsets the latest adventure of a tour guide and her Golden Agers abroad. Emily Andrew Miceli, co-owner of Destinations Travel Company, finds her deep reserves of patience tested as she herds a group of Midwestern seniors on a river cruise in France. At the D-Day tourist site on Normandy Beach, she encounters Jackie Thum, a beauty consultant who used to be Jack Potter, a man, and Emily's first husband. Jackie and three fellow shills for a cosmetics company are on the cruise too, along with their employers, and they all seem as indifferent to the beauties of the country they're exploring as Emily's remarkably techno-savvy charges, who can barely look up from their electronic toys. While Emily's trying to organize her tourists and distract them from their texting, she must also calm Jackie, who's incensed that her colleagues are about to skunk her out of a cash prize. When a Texas beauty falls from one of the picturesque cliffs in Etretat, it looks like an accident, until a post-mortem reveals she was poisoned before she fell. A second poisoning, the discovery of an ex-Nazi collaborator, the secret of a fleur-de-lis ring and the possible resumption of an interrupted romance shake up Emily's cruise but also offer some blessed relief from the tiresome bickering of the cartoonish biddies and geezers. Although Hunter (Bonnie of Evidence, 2013, etc.) tries to balance whimsy and tragedy, the numerous red herrings and lame jokes will tax readers' own reserves of patience with this travel cozy.

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April 1, 2014

A river cruise down the Seine with a group of octogenarians could be magical for Emily's tour group. Or it could mean murder for one of the passengers. Don't miss the ninth trip (after Bonnie of Evidence) in this always entertaining series.

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