At fifty-three, Richard Ainsworth, a former film historian, only wants to lead a quiet life running his bed-and-breakfast in France's Loire Valley. His daughter is married, and he and his wife are separated. When his housekeeper informs him Monsieur Vincent Grandchamps, a guest, is missing, and there is a bloody handprint on the wall, Richard moans that these kind of things are not supposed to happen to him. But, another guest, Valerie d'Orcay, is excited. The widow is bored and looking for excitement, so she's eager to search for the missing man. She enlists a hesitant Richard to help with her search. When they learn the missing man is the brother of a local judge, and Vincent has a price on his head with a dangerous couple searching for him, the investigation takes an intriguing turn. Richard is reluctantly caught up in Valerie's drama, until someone kills Ava Gardner, his hen. Now, even the timid Richard is willing to launch a dangerous search for the missing man, because no one messes with his beloved chickens.

The charming mystery, released in 2021 in the U.K., is a fast-paced, witty story for those who enjoy dry British humor.

This read was a wild ride, both in terms of content and in terms of my feelings about it. I thoroughly enjoyed the absurdity of it (mistaken identities! pet chickens! sleuths dragged into sleuthing against their will!), and it was a great change of pace from the dark, intense mysteries I've been reading lately.

However, I found myself losing the storyline at points, and there were several loose ends that never got tied up (who killed Ava Gardner??). Some of the humor landed for me, but there were also lots of attempts at humor that really missed the mark (it's 2022, are we really still using nontraditional relationships as a punchline?).

While not my cup of tea, other readers may find this good fun.

Thank you to NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press for a digital copy in exchange for an honest review.

Richard is the owner of a B & B in a imaginary town in the french countryside. His highlight of the day is feeding his hens he is also sort of a movie cinephile. Yes, I could love all that easily.

One day Valerie Dorçay appears on his life and she wants to got fun investigating the disappearance of one of the guest who left a bloody hand print on the paper wall and a broken pair of eye glasses.

Yes he is a very shy humourous men but I didn't quite enjoy the book. The chemistry with Valerie is ok but I found myself thinking if I should finished at all.

But I was here for an honest review. Not quite my cup of cozy mystery. I was hyped because on paper sounds good, that is the argument but it wasn't that good at all.

I gave it three stars but only because I love the setting and the humour. I have trouble getting to the end of it.

Thanks to the Publisher poisoned press and Netgalley for the arc

Whoever classified this with the cozies did this book a severe disservice. It's really not-it's more like Sam Spade runs a B&B, down to the classy but pushy dame and depressed detective. That said, for what it is, it's pretty good. It has a lot of sly humor in it, which I appreciated, but since I, personally, do not like reading hard core detective novels, this didn't do much for me.

Richard Ainsworth is a British ex-pat and proprietor of a B&B in the Loire Valley of France. It is here that he hopes to live a quiet life serving his guests and watching his favorite old films, being a well versed cinephile . HIs wife, Clare, found the bucolic lifestyle much too slow for her metropolitan tastes, so she headed back to London. Not truly sure where his marriage stands, he is left mostly in the company of his acerbic housekeeper, Madame Tablier and his beloved hens, - Ava Gardner, Rita Hayworth and Lana Turner.
Life takes a dramatic change when an elderly gentleman guest disappears leaving behind a bloody handprint on the wall of his guest room. Richard would like to move forward, clean the very expensive wallpaper and stay out of it. The flamboyant and unrelenting Valerie d’Orcay, another guest at the house, wears Richard down and he and she begin the adventure of finding out what happened to the missing guest.

If you are a fan of Richard Osman's Thursday Murder Club series or .C. Beaton's Agatha Raisin, you will thoroughly enjoy Death and Croissants. Filled with quirky characters who are found in the most unusual of circumstances. I am so looking forward to the next adventure.!

My Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

This was the perfect cozy mystery on a raining day in fall!
Set in the Loire Valley in France an Englishman owes a Bed & Breakfast and one of his guests goes missing. The cast of characters here are fantastic. Richard and Valerie make a great team. And we can't forget about the old Hollywood named chickens. Ava Gardner, you will be missed.

I've only read a couple of books in this genre of "cozy mystery", so I don't have a lot to compare to. Perhaps this type of novel isn't for me, as I just couldn't get into it. I found Valerie to be supremely irritating as a main character, attempting to solve a murder mystery because she is having a mid-life crisis.

Thank you to Poisoned Pen Press and NetGalley for the opportunity to access this free e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

This book was everything I wanted it to be. It had me turned pages without even realizing. It was so good!

British ex-pat Richard Ainsworth runs a chambre d’hôte (the French version of a B&B) in the Val de Follet in the Loire Valley. He’s very happy with his mundane life, not engaging with life unless he has to. When he does, it’s usually with his hens. But then a bloody handprint is discovered and one of his guests goes missing. Richard isn’t too disturbed. It’s not really a lot of blood. And old men occasionally wander off don’t they? Unfortunately, his other guest, the very glamorous Valérie d’Orçay, talks bullies him into investigating. He’s not at all sure that getting involved is a good idea. But then someone kills Ava Gardner!

Death and Croissants has a pretty standard premise for a cozy. An attractive couple, each in a bit of a slump. Put them in a charming setting, add some quirky characters for background and clever bits of humor. What more could you want? Well, frankly I want a story that leads somewhere. Not something that wanders aimlessly with the sole point of introducing a lot of “quirky” characters.

Rather than tell the story consistently through the main character, the author chose to change the narrator quite often. Jumping from Richard to Valérie, and sometimes including a couple of the minor characters. The result was an oddly paced narrative which added to the meandering, unfocused feeling of the story.

Rather than emphasize the mystery, the focus here was on characters and relationships. Rather than discussions of victims, suspects or clues, we get Richard’s thoughts regarding the other characters, usually via classic movie references. The main characters are likable enough, but they do little to add any real depth to the story. Richard’s role was to provide clever quips and asides, and be pulled along in Valérie’s wake. It is she who has most of the ideas, takes any action, and ultimately solves the mystery. This makes her a much more compelling character. Unfortunately, it is also made perfectly clear that her only motivation is her own boredom.

“But why did I involve you? Because you looked so unhappy, maybe that’s why. You looked like you’d given up. Maybe I had a little, too, but you most definitely.”

So why should the reader feel motivated if the protagonists aren’t? It’s sad, but Richard’s housekeeper, Madame Tablier, and his hens (Lana Turner, Joan Crawford, and the unlucky Ava Gardner) were by far more compelling as characters.

I kept hoping that something would pull me in and keep me involved. I kept reading, but it never happened. Overall, it just did nothing to engage me. In a word, it was Meh. And by the way, I’m really perturbed that no one ever solved the mystery of who killed Ava Gardner.

I am always in a mood for a cozy mystery. This didn't take long to finish, so I'm glad to say the book kept me sucked in from start to finish. Richard just wishes to live in solitude running his quaint bed and breakfast with his hens and settling with his movies until things begin to go amok, soon pulling Richard in when the death of one his beloved chickens take place. It was definitely an enjoyable read, gave me a few small laughs, and I loved how it ended. A 4-star read. Can't wait to get ahold of book 2.

Death and Croissants is a delight! A recommended first purchase for collections where mysteries are popular.

Whether comedy and murder really go together is something that I've asked myself a few times. Fortunately, when it's as well done as it is in Death and Croissants, the answer is undoubtedly a clear 'yes.' This isn't just an amusing murder mystery, but one that dissolves into pure farce time and time again. Perhaps you can't really take it quite seriously as a story of death and destruction, but that's more than ok, as the book itself certainly doesn't!
There were times that I was reminded of allo allo, not just because of the french setting, but I fully expected our hero to implore his almost exwife 'you stupid woman, can you not see...'
This whole book was tremendous fun. I will admit that by the end of it, I had completely lost track of the murder mystery element and what was going on. But really, who cares. It was a very entertaining read all the same.
I received a complimentary copy of this book through NetGalley. The opinions expressed in this review are completely my own and given voluntarily.

This was an okay read I found that it dragged on at some places. I would have liked the mystery to be the focus. This one spent time on character development and relationships. I don't think this is a series for me. If you like fun characters and focus on relationships this one would be for you.
#deathandcroissants#Netgalley

2.5 stars

The first thing I noticed when I started reading this book was how deliberately quirky it was written. "Death and Croissants" deliberately comes across as a cosy murder mystery very quickly and tells you from chapter 1 what it is that you can expect. What is the start of a new murder mystery series titled the “Folley Valley” series, presents its readers with a cast of unique, bizarre characters that managed to make what turns out to be a rather soft murder case at least a bit more interesting.

Richard Ainsworth is a proud Englishman and owner of a Bed and Breakfast in a rural area of France. He’s middle-aged (not so proudly), in the middle of a divorce and currently living his life on a day-to-day basis. In the mornings he oversees his guests’ breakfast, always hoping to come across as disengaged enough to unobtrusively blend into the background, while his afternoons and evenings are usually spent drinking wine and feeling a bit sorry for himself. All that changed with the arrival of Valérie d’Orcay, a gorgeous whirlwind of a woman who is just a little too interested in the bloody handprint found in the room of one of Richard’s guests. The man himself has vanished, leaving behind only the handprint and a pair of smashed glasses. Unwillingly, and very reluctantly, Richard is pulled into the investigations of just what happened to his gentleman guest and who murdered Ava Gardner, his beloved hen?

I more or less requested this on a whim. I was looking for something similar to "The Marlow Murder Club", something with preferably a lot of murders but set in a small town. "Death and Croissants" delivered on that front, but it turned out that the book was more interested in establishing and developing its quirky characters than in setting up an ‘unputdownable’ murder mystery.

The mystery of what exactly happened to the elderly gentleman, of who the beautiful and mysterious Valérie is and who is targeting Richard’s hens (all named after famous Golden Age actresses) is cute and entertaining in a low-key kind of way. Halfway through, however, I found myself sort of stopping to care ‘whodunnit’ and realised I was mainly continuing to read because of Richard and Valérie’s dynamic.

On their own, each character comes across as a bit over the top at times, just a bit too much like caricatures. Richard really doesn’t care for the sudden disappearance of one of his guests (even though it’s clear that something is amiss) so, as another reviewer put it “neither should we”. Valérie is awesome but you can just tell that she is a female main character written by a man. There was always this “Kill Bill/ femme fatale” air that surrounded her and at one point, Richard even compared her to Emma Peel from The Avengers who is just that. She’s given so many supposedly badass characteristics (of course she has also been married and divorced at least 4 times) but ends up being a female stereotype of a “strong woman”.

It was when those two were together, however, that I very much enjoyed myself. Valérie and Richard are such polar opposites: the stiff Englishman who doesn’t want any excitement in his life and the French woman who drives a yellow sportscar, happens to know self-defence as well as how to handle guns and who owns a little chihuahua called Passepartout.

Nevertheless, I rooted for these two to have more quiet and intimate moments with each other because it’s clear that Richard likes her and is interested in pursuing a romantic relationship with her. I just can’t help rooting for middle-aged people to fall in love. It’s all about the yearning, folks.
description
Very minor spoilers: their very softly hinted at ‘will-they-won’t-they’ relationship is what kept me going so that I finished the book in three days, even though I was left a tiny bit disappointed with where Valérie and Richard’s dynamic seems to be going so far.

Unfortunately, I was left cold by the solving of the murder. While the middle part seemed to drag a bit, the ending moved way too quickly for my taste and there were too many unresolved plot points. It’s never said who killed Richard’s hen, Ava Gardner. The function of the bloody handprints and smashed glasses left behind at not only Richard’s BnB but at other hotels as well was never explained. There is no reason for Valérie to drag Richard along with her even though he clearly slows her down all the time. This could have been explained by them forming a strong(er) bond or connection, but she spends most of her time mildly annoyed by his being slow on the uptake. And I have no idea how the two different sums of head money came about. In the end, the plot wasn’t written sharply enough to not confuse readers with its inevitable conclusion.

This book simply doesn’t have the depth and loving warmth of either "The Thursday Murder Club" or "The Marlow Murder Club" and it’s trying too hard not to take itself too seriously, which it fails at. The characters have potential, especially if the author allowed them to get closer, but they, as well as the plot, are in desperate need of honing.

I love a good cozy mystery and this did the job. My only problem with the book is that is felt slow moving too me. I would read it again, knowing that I probably missed something.

I think people who are fans of cosy murder mysteries will enjoy this.
Was a good read, but didn’t blow me away. Even though it was short, I found it a bit slow moving and the story didn’t really grip me.
The humour was fun and a highlight of the book, the main characters we’re likeable and it was well written. I just think this genre isn’t for me so probably will refrain from requesting similar ones in future!

Richard is a middle aged British ex-pat in France running a B&B in the Loire Valley. Life is dull it’s just how he likes it. Until one of his guests disappears leaving a bloody handprint and glamorous French guest Valerie convinces him to investigate.

This is heavy in description but it really sets the stage, and the sharpness in the humorous observations give us Richard’s insight into the world.

It was jarring to suddenly get Valerie’s point of view %25 in. A few other times another character would randomly have the point of view. I wish it was either more consistent or stuck with Richard. It really took me out of the story to spend so much time with Richard and then be jolted somewhere else.

I felt the mystery was slow to develop and not even Richard’s clever asides to himself or the wild side character saved the pacing. I kept leaving and coming back to it. The premise was great and there’s humor here, but its not a page turner. But Richard was likable enough that’s I’d read the second one with the hope that it moves along at a slighter brisker pace and comes together better in the end

I don't rate books that I haven't finished. The best part of Death and Croissants is the cover and the last page. This book just wasn't for me.

Open marriages, nipple clamps, dismemberment, murdered chickens.

Thank you to NetGalley for the opportunity to review Death and Croissants in exchange for an honest review.

Death and Croissants is a comical mystery novel following an eccentric cast as they try to unravel the puzzling case of Monsieur Grandchamps. Was he murdered, is he just simply missing or something else all together? Who killed the chicken?
The plot is set in the French countryside. The main character, Richard, has grown accustomed to the monotony and humdrum of running a bed and breakfast. After potential femme fatale, Valerie, recruits Richard (unwillingly) to find Grandchamps, more questions and intrigue develop.
Fans of Douglas Adams will enjoy the quick wit and humour of Death and Croissants. I hope to be able to meet these characters again in a sequel.

📖 Book Review 📖

Death and Croissants by Ian Moore
Published 14/03/2023

Synopsis:
Richard is a middle-aged Englishman who runs a B&B in the fictional Val de Follet in the Loire Valley. Nothing ever happens to Richard, and really that’s the way he likes it.

One day, however, one of his older guests disappears, leaving behind a bloody handprint on the wallpaper. Another guest, the enigmatic Valérie, persuades a reluctant Richard to join her in investigating the disappearance.

Why I Chose It:
The title drew me in... Who doesn't like murder and pastries?! I also like a cozy mystery so I was hoping it would be a good read.

What I Liked :
The two main characters Richard and Valerie were great. They bounced off each other nicely and you warmed to them both.
I loved the whole French bed and breakfast vibe... Take me to the Loire Valley!

What I Didn't Like:
The parts where Richard needed clarification on what was happening around him were drawn out... As a reader, I found this frustrating and did make the book seem overly long.

My rating: 3/5

Thanks to Netgalley and Poisoned Pen Pressfor giving me the opportunity to read this in exchange for an honest review