Mastering the Art of French Murder by Colleen Cambridge Series: An American in Paris #1
Published by Kensington Books on October 22, 2024
Genres: Historical Mystery
Pages: 304
Format: eBook
Source: Library
Goodreads
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As Paris rediscovers its joie de vivre, Tabitha Knight, recently arrived from Detroit for an extended stay with her French grandfather, is on her own journey of discovery. Paris isn’t just the City of Light; it’s the city of history, romance, stunning architecture . . . and food. Thanks to her neighbor and friend Julia Child, another ex-pat who’s fallen head over heels for Paris, Tabitha is learning how to cook for her Grandpère and Oncle Rafe.
Between tutoring Americans in French, visiting the market, and eagerly sampling the results of Julia’s studies at Le Cordon Bleu cooking school, Tabitha’s sojourn is proving thoroughly delightful. That is, until the cold December day they return to Julia’s building and learn that a body has been found in the cellar. Tabitha recognizes the victim as a woman she’d met only the night before, at a party given by Julia’s sister, Dort. The murder weapon found nearby is recognizable too—a knife from Julia’s kitchen.
Tabitha is eager to help the investigation, but is shocked when Inspector Merveille reveals that a note, in Tabitha’s handwriting, was found in the dead woman’s pocket. Is this murder a case of international intrigue, or something far more personal? From the shadows of the Tour Eiffel at midnight, to the tiny third-floor Child kitchen, to the grungy streets of Montmartre, Tabitha navigates through the city hoping to find the real killer before she or one of her friends ends up in prison . . . or worse.
After satiating myself on her Phyllida Bright Mystery series featuring Agatha Christie as a character, I was eager to taste test her newer series, American in Paris featuring the delectable Julia Child as a prominent side character. Colleen Cambridge does a spectacular job melding historical real life characters and time period settings with her clever, cozy mystery plots.
Mastering the Art of French Murder is the introductory book to the series so it has the onerous task of introducing the historical backdrop, characters, and getting a cunning murder mystery underway. I thought it was well done drawing me in with main character, Tabatha Knight, at the center of things. Tabatha was a Rosie the Riveter airplane mechanic during WWII, raised by her French grandmother, mother, and cop father, and now after a recent choice to break an engagement with childhood sweetheart, living the last few months in Paris with her Grandfather Maurice and his live-in partner, Oncle Rafe, for a change of scenery and time to figure out her life. With the men back from the war and taking over the jobs she and other women did, she is at a loss and doesn’t want a typical domestic life. Both old men were once French Resistance and Oncle Rafe, something more so they are welcoming to Tabatha’s need to get away. They live in a large house at the center of Paris and Tabatha enjoys staying with them, tutoring American ex-Pats the French language while keeping up friendship and culinary mentoring from her across the street neighbor, Julia Child.
Paul, Julia, and Julia’s sister, Dort live in the apartments across the way while Paul works for the American Embassy and Julia takes cooking lessons at Cordon Bleu. Dort works for an American acting group renting one of the theaters. Dort is a social butterfly and it was at Dort’s after party for the players that Tabatha met the murder victim and was the last to see her alive.
Tabatha channels her inner Nancy Drew because she doesn’t trust the youngish, stern French detective. She has the advantage of knowing the suspects and getting them to talk to her. She has regular consults with Tabatha’s Old Gentlemen who are willing to use their past connections and their knowledge of the current situation. And, Dort even gets her to take up the dead woman’s job at the theater where she can really do some private investigation without alerting the suspects.
Like with her previous series, Colleen Cambridge brings the real life Julia and Paul Childs and Dort to life splendidly and also draws in a great deal of historical detail to the setting and background of the characters so the real and fiction blend organically for the story.
This is post-WWII Paris so Paris and the characters are still recovering and starting anew after years of war. All this is vivid and part of the story. Tabatha is impulsive and gutsy, but not stupid and she’s very observant. She wants to stay out of it and let the police do their jobs, but also can’t stay out of it once she thinks Merveille has zeroed in on her and her friends as the likeliest suspects. It was funny how Inspector Merveille got under her skin without even trying. He wasn’t bombastic nor did he leap to conclusions, but he also didn’t want her meddling with his case. I appreciated that she did her own investigating, but also shared all her finds with the police and, in the end, didn’t intend to go it alone when danger was at its height.
Sidenote: I was tickled that Tabatha’s background hit so close to home for me living within spitting distance of her home turf. She was born and raised in Belleville (near Detroit) and worked at the Willow Run Airport on the B-24s. She talks of Faygo and Vernor’s pop, Boblo Island amusement park, driving on the ice at Belleville Lake and le sigh…
All in all, a fab start and I am revved to keep going with further installments in the series. Foodies, historical cozy fans, and, Julia Child lovers really should slice off time to enjoy this series.
About Colleen Cambridge
Colleen Gleason (aka Colleen Cambridge, C.M. Gleason, and Alex Mandon) is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling and award-winning author who can’t seem to decide what type of book to write…so she writes a lot of different genres!
So far, Colleen has written everything from vampire hunters to dystopian romance, to steampunk, historical romance, and mysteries with a supernatural flair or a historical setting. One element, however, that appears in all of her stories, is that of partnership…whether it be professional, romantic, or both.
All of Colleen’s books feature strong heroines experiencing fast-paced adventures, danger, mystery, and of course, romance. But at the core of each story is the belief that every woman deserves a partner who accepts her for her strengths as well as her weaknesses—and vice versa.
Colleen lives in the midwest United States with her family and two dogs, and is always working on her next book.
As a lifelong reader, it was inevitable that Sophia would discover book blogs and the joy of blog reviewing.Sophia is a prolific reader and audiobook listener which allows her to experience so many wonderful books, authors, and narrators.Few genres are outside her reading tastes, but her true love is fiction particularly history, mystery, sci-fi, and romance.Though, sorry, no horror or she will run like Shaggy and Scooby.
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How fun that she incorporates real-life historical figures into her mysteries! I like the Paris setting, too!
Yes! It is a fun added element to her mysteries. I found the second book even better.
Oh, this sounds fun. I love the idea of Julia Child as a character. And I loved going to Boblo Island when I was growing up.
I was so geeked when I spotted the local connection, but adore how she has written Julia Child. I had no doubt this character matched the joyful cook I saw on her old cooking shows on PBS. 🙂
I love when mystery weaves real historical facts. This looks good!
Isn’t that a great blend? I’m ready to start the new release and excited to dive in.
I remember you mentioning this book in our chats. I am glad to hear you enjoyed it so much. How interesting Julia Child is a character in this series. And that’s awesome it did such a great job setting the stage for this series and being a great read. Sounds like there is a lot of historical detail in this one as well. Great review and you definitely have me curious about this one.
Yes! This is that historical cozy series I was excited about. I’m just starting the third book now and it is holding strong as a series. 🙂
I didn’t love the first book in her Agatha Christie adjacent series but I’ve heard that series has gotten better. The mystery on this one sounds even better even though I’m not a big Julia Childs fan. I’m looking forward to picking this one up.
I was so-so with the first Phyllida Bright series, but now four books along and I’m into it. This Julia Child series I took to right away (admittedly, I’m a Julia Child fan so that might factor, LOL). She’s is something of the lighter comic relief and encourages the gal who is detecting.
Omigosh I love that title lol.
This series has some clever titles, for sure.