Read Your Way Around the World - Mysterious France

Read Your Way Around the World invites you to explore France, land of mysteries.

The Carter of la Providence by Georges Simenon

"One rainy night a canal worker stumbles across the strangled body of Mary Lampson in a stable near Lock 14. The dead woman's husband seems unmoved by her death and is curt and unhelpful when Maigret interviews him aboard his yacht. But gradually Maigret is able to piece together their story--a sordid tale of whiskey-fueled orgies and nomadic life on the canals. Can the answer to this crime be found aboard the yacht? Or is the murderer among the bargemen, carters, and lockkeepers who work the canal?" Discover

Murder in Pigalle by Cara Black

"June, 1998: Paris’s sticky summer heat is even more oppressive than usual as rowdy French football fans riot in anticipation of the World Cup. Private investigator Aimée Leduc has been trying to slow down her hectic lifestyle—she’s five months pregnant and has the baby’s well-being to think about now. But then disaster strikes close to home. A serial rapist has been terrorizing Paris’s Pigalle neighborhood, following teenage girls home and attacking them in their own houses. Zazie, the 13-year-old daughter of the proprietor of Aimée’s favorite café, has disappeared. The police aren’t mobilizing quickly enough, and when Zazie’s desperate parents approach Aimée for help, she knows she couldn’t say no even if she wanted to." publisher

The Corsican Caper by Peter Mayle

"Billionaire Francis Reboul is taking in the view at his coastal estate, awaiting the arrival of vacationing friends Sam Levitt and Elena Morales, when he spies a massive yacht whose passengers seem a little too interested in his property. The yacht belongs to rapacious Russian tycoon Oleg Vronsky, who, for his own purposes, will stop at nothing to obtain Reboul’s villa. When Reboul refuses to sell, Vronsky’s methods quickly turn unsavory. Now it’s up to Sam—he’s saved Reboul’s neck before—to negotiate with an underworld of mercenaries and hit men, not to mention the Corsican mafia, to prevent his friend from becoming a victim of Vronsky’s “Russian diplomacy." publisher

The Counterfeit Heiress by Tasha Alexander

"After an odd encounter at a grand masquerade ball, Lady Emily becomes embroiled in the murder investigation of one of the guests, a sometime actress trying to pass herself off as the mysterious heiress and world traveler Estella Lamar.  Each small discovery, however, leads to more questions. Was the intended victim Miss Lamar or the imposter?  And who would want either of them dead? As Emily and Colin try to make sense of all this, a larger puzzle begins to emerge:  No one has actually seen Estella Lamar in years, since her only contact has been through letters and the occasional blurry news photograph.  Is she even alive?  Emily and Colin’s investigation of this double mystery takes them from London to Paris, where, along with their friend Cécile, they must scour the darkest corners of the city in search of the truth." publisher

Fleur de Lies: a passport to peril mystery by Maddy Hunter

"When intrepid travel agency owner Emily Andrew-Miceli takes her band of tech-savvy seniors to France, they say "Bonjour" by cruising down the Seine River along with a colorful cast of cruise-goers. But once a guest is found dead along Normandy's famed Alabaster coast, Emily bids adieu to the hopes of a fatality-free trip. Was it a mishap or murder? Emily must untangle a web of lies that began a half-century ago, on the very eve of the D-Day invasion." publisher