Customer Reviews

Murder She Wrote Provence to Die for

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The latest Murder, She Wrote novel finds Jessica Fletcher in the small French town of Province on a leisurely vacation. As Jessica vacations she decides to take a cooking class from Michelin Star chef Emil Bertrand. However, Jessica's intrest in cooking is soon turned to an intrest in murder when Emil is found murdered with one of his own custom knives!
Soon Jessica encounters many suspects. Could it be Emil's lover? His illegitimate son? The American teenager that Jessica has taken under her wing? Perhaps it was his partner who Emil was planning to betray. Whoever the murderer is Jessica is determined to find out before an innocent person is locked up!
This novel is great for all fans of Murder, She Wrote-although I feel the ending of this one may be a bit weak. It seems to me that the writer has broken the first rule of mystery novels, but perhaps breaking that rule is what is truly surprising in the great new book. I highly reccomend it to any mystery buff. Four Stars!

The older Jessica gets, the more wiser she becomes. "Provence To Die For" is one of the most mysterious books in the Murder She Wrote series. Traveling to an unfamiliar country in Jessica's latest adventure, so many readers will wish they were there with her as she stumbles upon clue after clue trying to right a wrong of a clever culprit. I couldn't put the book down, as I was taking it with me where ever I went. Chapter Three is my favorite chapter, as it depicts Jessica on a dark and lonley farmhouse surrounded with strange noises--or is it only the wind? This book is a page turner, as many readers will agree, and the best in the series. That's hard for me to acknowledge because of the earlier works by Donald Bain, and which I enjoyed immensely--"Brandy and Bullets," "A Deadly Judgment," "A Palette For Murder," "The Highland Fling Murders," "Murder on the QE2," "Murder in Moscow," "A Little Yuletide Murder," and "Knock 'em Dead."

i truly truly enjoyed this book, every page was exciting. JB i love ya thanks.....................

Although I prefer the setting of the Murder She Wrote novels in Cabot Cove, I just say that this is one of my favories. It's interesting and filled with French culture and wonderful food! Hope you enjoy this one as much as I did.

I love the Murder She Wrote series, and "Provence--to die for," is no exception. I enjoyed the characters and setting for this entry in the series. Jessica travels to Provence, France, where she hopes to spend quiet time away from home. But murder follows her, as usual, and her reverie is cut short. Donald Bain and his wife, Renee, have continued a series adored by millions, and hope they persevere with Jessica's fun, and sometimes dangerous travels. Jessica Fletcher is my favorite detective in the business! I only wish she was a real person. I'd love to meet her one day!

This novel -- Provence-To Die For --is only one of several "Murder She Wrote" mysteries by Donald Bain that I've recently read. They are like potato chips -- I can't seem to read just one. And like potato chips, they go very fast -- I seem to go through one every two days. But they ARE fun, and my review will be largely positive.

Bain incorporates the first-person point of view. In the opening pages, Jessica writes "I was coming off of a particularly hectic summer . . . ." Some other well-known series of detective novels also rely on first-person narrative. For instance, the character Archie Goodwin narrates all the Nero Wolfe mysteries. The point of view helps us get to know Jessica Fletcher very well -- we not only get her statements, and hear any dialog that's directed to her, but we also get her thoughts, her whimsies, her doubts.

Regardless of the name Jessica Fletcher on the dust jackets, these books are penned by Donald Bain. Mr. Bain has a gift for snappy dialog. Characters at times undo themselves with unintended revelations. With the first-person point of view, we have Jessica's wry or ironic reflections on these "bon mots." Humor emerges as Jessica's wise and somewhat sardonic view of human nature casts reflections on her surroundings. Some characters, also, are just foils for humor.

This particular Murder She Wrote novel uses as a setting the district of Provence France. The plot driver is the unexpected murder of a star-rated French chef, and the crime occurs midway through a cooking class that Jessica is attending. As in many effective mysteries, the story is developed through very extensive dialog and a series of interviews by Jessica of prime suspects. Culinary murder mysteries are a category of mystery. Many have been written. The best known other one that comes to my mind is Rex Stout's Too Many Cooks, a Nero Wolfe mystery.

Wolfe seems to favor poison for knocking off chefs, but Bain makes use of the obvious weapon at hand, one of those huge chef knives with 10-inch blades that seem ever present on TV cooking shows. Bain's range of suspects are of considerable interest for the reader. That is, Bain creates a number of very interesting personalities to play off against Jessica. These include Claire, a lovely young woman employed by the hotel, as well as a trod-down chef named Guy who -- unfairly -- is little more than the star-rated chef's flunky.

I enjoyed the police inspector assigned to the case. LeClerq strongly dislikes Jessica. Partly because of his overbearing manner and partly through jealosy, LeClerq is brusque and rude to Jessica at every turn. After a while, he even threatens her with arrest if she dares to pursue the case. But for all her femininity and charm, Jessica on the trail of a killer is like a pit bull in a chicken coop. Clashes between LeClerq and Jessica enliven this book.

The denoument, or resolution of the novel, is very effective in this particular book. One hardly knows who could have been the killer, but clues HAVE been supplied, and the identity of the killer does make sense upon reflection. Some of Bain's victims are such totally unpleasant people that we often have more than a little sympathy for the killer.

One final merit of this entire series of novels is the terrific use of setting. So much of the charm of Provence-To Die For has to do with Jessica's exploration of this lovely part of France. The towns, people, restaurants, hotels, streets, children of Provence are beautifully described. Bain loves to explore the Gallic temperament. Details such as a description of the baguette's crust are nicely turned. Many of the Murder She Wrote novels are brought alive by still other fascinating settings. Bain did one novel where Jessica crosses the Atlantic on the Queen Elizabeth II. He seemed to like it, because he later wrote another sea-voyage mystery in the series, this time on the newer Queen Mary II.

These are not "War and Peace" but they are fun. I do enjoy them. I believe Bain has written sixteen or eighteen of them. All in all, fun books, and this particular novel is one of the better in the series.

This was the 2nd book in the series I read, but I was slightly dissappointed in it. For one thing, the characters in my opinion were not interesting and I found that the young woman that Jessica befriended did not hold my interest at all. Are all chefs arrogant, I hope not. Cooking classes should be fun and not critical. I was slightly bored in many places in the book. My favorite parts was the countryside that Jessica was in and the bakery and the vivid descriptions of the pastries and breads. Even the proprietor was arrogant too. It was a quick read because I wanted to get it over with. If you love the french countryside and cooking and stuffy and indifferent french people you will love this book.

I just can't seem to get into this one. I usually can't put them down. But this one is really slow moving!

I have collected all of the Murder She Wrote books to date and re-read them every so often. I find them very 'readable'. This one is no exception.

Yet another great book in the Murder She Wrote series, again a great sense of atmosphere is created with people and places so vividly described you could almost be there, roll on the next in the series!