Treachery in Bordeaux by Jean Pierre Alaux

Treachery in Bordeaux by Jean-Pierre Alaux
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Part one of a series about detective work in the French wine industry. As a starter it was short and had a very simple plot however this did not spoil my enjoyment of the book and was obviously laying down the groundwork for other more in depth stories to follow. Benjamin Cooper and his sidekick Virgile are well introduced and although new colleagues have struck a mutual respect relationship.
An impressive first story and impressive translation from French. Recommend you try it.

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Tower by Ken Bruen, Reed Farrel Coleman

Tower by Ken Bruen
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Started out encouraging but eventually lost interest three quarters the way through. The mob culture described here did not really have any substantial story line and without that I gave up.

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Murder below Montparnasse by Cara Black

Murder Below Montparnasse by Cara Black
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

A reasonable read, French detective Aimee Leduc chasing artwork getting involved with murder. For me the format on my ebook version was off making it a little more difficult to read. The plot however was telegraphed very early on and I kept going hoping there would be a twist. Some sideline stories with no connection to the main story appeared to be there as a filler, omitted it would have made no material difference.

The author whose books are set in Paris ( as per the title) seemed to be trying to give a French flavour by quoting the character in French language but only for isolated words ( "alors", "non" ), this was totally unnecessary as you know it is France but most of all it was irritating. If you could put that aside then it was okay.

This is my first Cara Black story but although I would read her again, it would not be at the top of my list.

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