If you’d like an intriguing mystery story peopled with unique characters, enhanced with descriptions of mouth watering edibles and lush pictures of the Italian and French country side Murder in the Rue Dumas is the book for you.
M. L. Longworth who also penned Death at the Chateau Bremont (2011) has lived in Aix-en-Provence for the past 15 or so years, and has written for major publications regarding this region. One can only assume that she loves her adopted home from the warm descriptions of places and food included in her story. Rather than hindering the mystery they simply serve to enrich and vivify it.
Making a return appearance in Longworth’s second mystery are magistrate Antoine Verlaque and his girlfriend law professor Marine Bonnet. He has been called to investigate the murder of Dr. Georges Moutte, chair of the Theology Department at the University d’Aix. Moutte’s soon-to-be retirement has become a permanent one, hastened by blows to his head delivered by a blunt instrument. Verlaque is assisted by Paulik in interrogating faculty members, students, and those in attendance at a party the night before.
Each interviewee has a story to tell, always a fascinating one. Initially two students who had broken into Moutte’s office to find out who had won a prestigious fellowship are prime suspects but quickly fall to the bottom of the list as Moutte’s other involvements are discovered.
Longworth is an engaging and entertaining writer who holds readers with not only interesting tidbits (such as dropping into Les Deux Garcons, the café where Cezanne and Zola once exchanged ideas), and the badinage between Verlaque and Bonnet while at the same time spinning a mystery.
This reader is delighted to have discovered Longworth and looks forward to her next novel.
- Gail Cooke
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