Crime Fraiche (Capucine Culinary Mysteries) [Hardcover]

Alexander Campion (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 28, 2011 | Series: Capucine Culinary Mysteries

Taking a break from the hustle and bustle of Paris, French detective Capucine LeTellier and her portly food critic husband, Alexandre, visit Capucine's family's manor home in Normandy. Arriving at the height of the pheasant hunting season, idyllic picnic lunches and mushrooming trips in the forest are interrupted by a series of hunting accidents that claim the lives of several employees from the local cattle ranch, famed for its exquisite beef. Suspecting foul play, Capucine delves into local affairs only to find her investigation stymied by the local police force. And as the case unravels, Capucine and Alexandre uncover romantic intrigues gone awry and dangerous, deadly resentments...

Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Kensington Books (June 28, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0758246714
• ISBN-13: 978-0758246714
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.8 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #807,555 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Alexander Campion started out as a true New Yorker, graduating from Columbia and migrating downtown to Wall Street. Early on, someone proposed, a little apologetically, he spend six months maximum in Paris helping out with a new food venture his firm had just acquired. He stayed thirty-five years, eventually becoming a restaurant critic and progressing inevitably to gastronomic thrillers.

He is currently living in Toronto--with his wife and his very headstrong Basset Hound--planning to return to Paris in the near future.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars super French police procedural, July 1, 2011

By 

Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews
(#1 Hall OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Crime Fraiche (Capucine Culinary Mysteries) (Hardcover)

In Paris, Police Judicaire Commissaire Capucine LeTellier is diligently working with a team trying to catch the criminal La Belle. She allows herself, after feigning illness, to go to her rescuer's house and steals some valuables while there. No one knows what she looks like or have a clue how to find her, which leads to the media wanting Capucine's tete. Capucine's Uncle Aymerie invites her to his Chateau Maulevrier in Normandy ending a two year estrangement. She and her overweight food critic spouse Alexandre accept.

At a dinner party, Monsieur Vienneau talks about the shooting two weeks ago of a cattle ranch manger. When a man is found dead after a steak house is demolished, Capucine's instincts are engaged. During another hunt a third person is killed. The Commissaire investigates the string of deadly accidents while also working the La Belle case in Paris.

Armchair travelers get a taste of Paris and a small town in Normandy as Alexander Campion paints a picturesque background. The author creates quirky characters with flaws that make them seem real. The two subplots are cleverly devised and the flow back and forth between them is smooth as the cop goes after the killer and the thief in a super French police procedural.

Harriet Klausner

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Succulent, Satisfying Novel, July 12, 2011

By 

A Very Merry Shakespeare "Amy E. Lignor" (NY, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Crime Fraiche (Capucine Culinary Mysteries) (Hardcover)

This book is a delightful adventure for both mystery readers and readers of culinary tales. The lovely head of the Paris Police Department, Commissaire Capucine Le Tellier, starts off on a hunting trip along with her husband, Alexandre, who is senior food critic for Le Monde - a very popular Paris
newspaper. Capucine and Alexandre are looking forward to having a tranquil trip to the French countryside that will be all about picnics, dinners, and many glasses of French wine. But, before the two arrive at a sixteenth-century chateau that is owned by one of Capucine's relatives, the whole idea of a pleasant vacation in the beauty of the French countryside is absolutely ruined by a fatal hunting accident. And, oddly enough, the longer the couple dwells in the chateau, the more accidents occur.

Various shootings - supposedly more hunting accidents - are soon painfully obvious that they are not just caused by a slip of the trigger finger. But the local police are not willing to solve this intriguing, serious murder spree, which puts Capucine on the case!

Now, she is completely willing to work on them in order to solve these numerous deaths, but she soon falls into a tremendously `sticky' situation when she heads to a famous cattle ranch. The issues soon rise well beyond small town law enforcement, as well as the fights that ensue over some of France's most beloved cooking traditions.

Readers who would love to travel will absolutely love this novel. A glimmer of Paris, along with the fabulous scenery of Normandy, fill the pages, as well as some really wonderful descriptions of the fantastic food of the French countryside.

Not surprising, this is yet another terrific story by Alexandre Campion, who started his career in New York and ended up in Paris as a restaurant critic, who then flung himself into the mystery world! As far as food is concerned, this is another succulent meal for readers everywhere!