This was a cozy fun read. After the recent books read, I needed something light and fun. Something I was able to turn off and just experience the story. Normally I'd try to figure out what's going on and solve the story. Not this time and it was a fun ride. This was my first read by the author and guaranteed it won't be the last.

A Vintage End by D'Arcy Kavanagh is the second in the Paul Burke mystery series. The main character is Paul Burke, a former Professional Bicyclist turned blogger who has relocated from Montreal, Canada to a home on the French Riveria. This novel is set around a vintage bicycle race in the area around Nice, France where unknown individuals are setting up various events during each stage of the race that are designed to implicate the owner of the companies sponsoring the race in profitting from Nazi war crimes perpetrated by an ancestor.

I found this novel very difficult to read and complete as there was far more focus and attention was given to the area that the races were being held in and relationships of various tangential characters in the book as opposed to the actual investigation and resolution of the mystery presented. I did find that the author included enough of the history of the main character and his prior involvement with assisting the police with a previous investigation so I could follow and understand without needing to go back and read the first book in this series. The author also did a good job of including pertinent information regarding typical bicyclist behaviors that enabled the police to determine that the murder that took place partway through had to have committed by someone outside of the group that were setting up the events during the races.

I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley and BHC Press and am posting this review voluntarily.

This is the second book I read in this series and it was as entertaining as the first one.
Well plotted, fleshed out and likeable characters, a solid mystery that kept me guessing.
Recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

Having not read the first book in the Paul Burke series, I wondered how I would fare. The answer is very well. Kavanagh provides enough backstory to prevent readers from being confused and just enough to make most of them want to go back to read that first book, The Bastard Is Dead.

The plot is a familiar one, especially if you're a fan of Martin Walker's Bruno Chief of Police mysteries. Memories are long in France, and any whiff of Nazism is taken very seriously. This is why the accusations of wartime profiteering against millionaire cycling enthusiast Bosco Yablonski are so serious.

The mystery is a nice, convoluted one, and French Canadian Paul Burke is an eagle-eyed former professional cyclist who doesn't miss a trick, so much so that the local police grudgingly pay attention to him after checking in with the officer he worked with in the first book. He's got a nice life in a perfect little village in the French Riviera. A girlfriend in the restaurant business. A Jack Russell terrier named Plato. And a job as a blogger for a newspaper consortium and a weekly gig on a television sports program. I became rather envious of this man's lifestyle while at the same time thinking he was a bit too good at putting random pieces of information together.

Although I enjoyed letting my mind work on the solution to the mystery, and I did like Burke as the main character, I have to admit that I enjoyed the cycling lore and the bicycling through the small French villages the most. I could picture the vistas spread out before me and feel the wind in my hair. Spoiled by all the food in Martin Walker's mysteries, I almost wish there were more gastronomic delights in A Vintage End, but that's not being fair to this charming tale.

This ARC was provided to me via Kindle by BHC Press and #NetGalley for my honest opinion. Opinions expressed are completely my own.

The second in a fun cozy mystery series. If this is your genre, pick it up!