Murder in the Rue Dumas (A Provençal Mystery Book 2)

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Samen met zijn rechterhand Bruno Paulik wordt Antoine Verlaque aangesteld om deze zaak te onderzoeken.

Marine Bonnet, a well respected law professor, pairs her extensive knowledge with his investigative skills once again to solve several murders centered in the university's theology department. I spent more time enjoying the discussions of the regions than being even slightly interested in the crime, or who might have done it. I don't have to think about whether it will fit into one of my zillion challenges (and hopefully more than one) or whether I have time to sneak in a non-challenge book. The glass work of Emile Galle takes Antoine and Marine to small towns of Italy that brought back memories to me through their appreciation of art, architecture, food and wine. But he has a cruel streak in him--playing his colleagues and graduate students off of one another; promising the positions to first one and then another; and then the cruelest move of all.Several characters describe her as beautiful, and a great deal of energy is spent making sure we know she's good looking. We know their background—well, for most of them—their lives, their relationships and personal passions; Bruno’s love of opera and Verlaque’s cigars. Supposedly people who like Guido Brunetti like this series as well, but I'll stick with the pasta-loving, grappa-drinking Veneziano from now on.

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. Home is so sad/It stays as it was left, Shaped to the comfort of the last to go/As if to win them back.Explanations of relationships are clear and kept short (no rehashing of everything one might have learned in the first novel) and are just enough to make new readers comfortable. One can only assume that she loves her adopted home from the warm descriptions of places and food included in her story.

Dit vind ik toch jammer, want dit haalt de vaart uit het verhaal en nu was ik toch vaker geneigd om het boek aan de kant te leggen. This is why the Martin Walker trillers set in the Dordogne are so much more enjoyable you feel you are with the characters as they take you through the storyline. A promising debut for Longworth, who shows there's more to France than Paris and more to mystery than Maigret. Or, as he also failed to announce the winner of a lucrative student prize, could it have been one of the students in line for that? Dla wielu osób pewno byłoby nudne i bez akcji, ale na mnie działa w tych okropnych czasach jak balsam.

Almost more than anything else, the book is a delight to read for its detailed descriptions of foods and wines, while art—I’d not known before of Gallés glass and ex-votos--, history—during the plague, the town fathers of Aix closed the city gates resulting in the plague passing without the loss of a single life in Aix--, literature—“What will survive of us is love. Although not directly concerning the case, I thought that the Epilogue did wind everything up rather nicely. The second book in the delightful Verlaque and Bonnet mystery series is another page-turning whodunit, this time in set in a small community of theology students and professors at Aix-en-Provence's university. The main characters are engaging and likeable and I particularly enjoyed the interactions between two of the graduate students, Yann Falquero and Thierry Marchive.