Customer Reviews

Monsieur Pamplemousse on Vacation (A&B Crime)

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1 star:		(1)

 

 

Monsieur Henri Leclercq, Director of Le Guide has suggested that Monsieur and Madame Pamplemousse, accompanied by Pommes Frites, might well enjoy a vacation on the Cote d'Azure in Southern France. Of course while there, he is also quite sure that Pamplemousse would not mind picking up an object d'art, that Madame Leclercq's Uncle Caputo is having delivered by a contact at a performance by female pupils of a Russian school, in a production of West Side Story, and testing some new technology that Le Guide has acquired. Unfortunately, the contact never contacts the good Monsieur Pamplemousse, Trigaux, develops a number of derrieres and one doudoune in the photographic department at Le Guide, Pommes Frites protects his master from the new technology, and Pamplemousse finds himself in a coffin, courtesy of the Russian Mafya.

I'm a huge fan of Pamplemousse and Pommes Frittes, but this book reads as if written by a committee of ghost writers trying to keep the franchise going. All the usual elements are here, but feel pasted on and contrived...the "derrieres and one doudoune" scene mentioned in another review is the perfect example. It's a bit creepy because in all the other books M. P. is the innocent victim of surprise risque encounters, not the perpetrator bordering on a dirty old man. Worst of all, the plot is boring...perhaps it's not fair for me to review since I stopped halfway through. If you're a huge fan, give it a try, since it's part of the series and you might disagree with me. But I'd discourage anyone from starting here...you probably won't pick up the rest, which would be a shame.

I've tried to read this twice; the second time I got up to about a dozen pages, and found myself simply glomming on to the three or four 'errors' per page in the book.

Knowing and cherishing the characters as well as I do, it galled me to hear things M Pamplemousse would never say, do things that would never happen, and generally acting like a (should I say it?) American.

On top of having no relation to earlier M Pamplemousse books, all of which I love, this has no humor in it at all, unless children falling off a stage while in a play is hilarious.

Do not try reading this at home, or anywhere else. Certainly do not spend money for it. It was surely written by an overworked intern that never read any books in the series, and edited by some American intern that 'improved' it by making it readable by the average American (read "The Illiterate American")

Of course this review is based on a small percentage of the book; I'll try to read more, and if I find that Mr Bond has awakened from his coma to take up the writing himself, I will apologize - but do not bother waiting for it.