Genre: Mystery
Hardcover; Paperback; Digital Book
ISBN #: 9781683313410; 9781683316046
Crooked Lane Books
368 Pages
$18.35; $15.99; $1.99 Amazon
November 7, 2017
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It's always been Mimi Rousseau's dream to open her own bistro, but it seems beyond her grasp since she's been chased back home to Nouvelle Vie in Napa Valley by her late husband's tremendous debt. Until her best friend Jorianne James introduces her to entrepreneur Bryan Baker who invests in promising prospects. Now, working the bistro and inn until she's able to pay it off and call it her own, Mimi is throwing the inn's first wedding ever.
The wedding will be the talk of the town, as famous talk show host Angelica Edmonton, daughter of Bryan's half-brother, Edison, has chosen the inn as her perfect venue. Anxious, Mimi is sure things are going to turn south, especially when Edison gets drunk and rowdy at the out-of-towners' dinner, but by the evening, things begin to look up again. That is until six AM rolls around, and Bryan is found dead at the bistro with an éclair stuffed in his mouth. And the fingers point at Mimi, whose entire loan is forgiven in Bryan's will.
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Mimi Rousseau is excited that the opening of her bistro is going to host a celebrity wedding - the niece of the man who funded her endeavor, Brian Baker. When the first evening gets underway everything seems to be going swimmingly; the guests love the food and everyone seems happy with their rooms. But the next morning the bride-to-be, Angelica Barrington, knocks furiously on Mimi's door. She's found her Uncle Brian dead on the patio.
When Mimi hastens to see for herself, she sees that Brian is indeed deceased and when the police arrive she also learns that her cell phone was found nearby with a message for Brian to meet her. Mimi attempts to convince Detective Tyson Daly that someone must have lifted her phone from the kitchen and she didn't send it. While Tyson is a friend of hers, without witnesses he still has to consider her the main suspect, especially when a notarized letter is found in Brian's effects that gives Mimi full ownership of the bistro and inn in the event of his death.
But when a witness does eventually come forth that can attest to her whereabouts and she is cleared of the crime, there is still the matter of a killer lurking somewhere on her premises and it could be any one of the numerous people who were told they can't leave until he or she is found. With a hotel full of suspects and a wedding put on hold, Mimi wants the murder of her friend solved - and soon.
I liked the premise of this book and really wanted to love it. Unfortunately, I didn't. I just didn't like Mimi at all; and one really needs to like the main character in order to like the book. She tells the investigating homicide detective - Tyson Daly, a friend from childhood - that's it's her civic duty to discover the killer, but no, it's not. It's his duty. I understand that we want our protagonist to discover the murderer; after all, that's why we read the books, but Mimi is out-and-out obnoxious to people. She's a get-in-your-face type of person when she asks questions. She asks people where they were, checks on their alibis, and then confronts them again and demands they tell her the truth - even when it angers them. Does she not realize one of these people is a killer? It's rather difficult to like a protagonist who acts like this. She hounds people constantly - and tells them it's all in the name of wanting to find her mentor's killer. But isn't that Tyson's job?
It's one thing to overhear conversations, it's entirely another to corner people and harass them until they start yelling at you and threatening you. This isn't mere curiosity, as she says; just read the conversation she has with David Ives outside the store and you'll understand. She's basically conducting her own police interrogation without actually being an officer or in an interrogation room in a police station. This is irresponsible.
And what does Tyson do? He doesn't spend his time working on the case - he goes over to his mother's home and works around there, etc. I'm pretty sure detectives don't go looking at real estate while a case is ongoing. This guy seems like he just went into the job to impress people with the fact; Mimi is doing all the work and we never saw him question a single person - he didn't even take anyone down to the station.
I didn't feel that any of the characters were fleshed out, so we couldn't become involved with them. There was practically nothing about Tyson, Jo, etc.; and we didn't really get to know anything about any of them. This, of course, can be remedied in future books, so we will see.
Also, (I hope this isn't going to be a trend in future books) but I really hate it when (as the author wrote toward the end of the book) political leanings are inserted. The only time you should read about politics is when you're reading non-fiction or a book that deals with the subject. Fiction authors shouldn't offer their personal feelings by adding characters that will eventually insert their political beliefs into the story. Admittedly, it was only a paragraph or two, but I got the idea that this character will be recurring in future books. Just my opinion.
In the end, I felt the reason for the murder was flimsy; someone would definitely have to be unhinged in the first place to imagine what the killer imagined would eventually take place. Obviously, they didn't trust in who they were or family members or they wouldn't have even have allowed this to cross their mind. It just didn't seem like it was a strong enough reason for murder, so was a bit of a letdown. But, as it is the first in the series, I will read the next to see if it improves.
https://www.amazon.com/Deadly-%C3%89clair-French-Bistro-Mystery/dp/1683313410/
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2073903820
More on Daryl Wood Gerber's Books: https://www.fantasticfiction.com/g/daryl-wood-gerber/
