Death and Croissants

Media/Journalist 953506

What do you read when you have read all of the books in the Thursday Murder Club series but you are still craving something with humor, European flair, and, yes, murder? The answer, my friends, is this book, the beginning of a delightful new series by Ian Moore. Ian Moore is apparently a successful standup comedian in The UK and once I read that upon finishing the book so many things made sense to me. Like Richard Osman in his Thursday murder club series, the main reason to read this book is for the sparkling, hilarious dialogue and inner thoughts of its characters. And death and croissants gives us these characters with mad cap delight. There is something that is just best described as a frolic about this book. It is definitely potentially classified as a cozy, but it is really more what I’m thinking of as light British or French crime. Sure, there are some predictable elements, and the murder is off the page there is no gore to be found. I mean, unless you consider a bloody hand print to be gory. I do not. We will find here is some thing I can to the fun of watching a 40s screwball comedy in the golden age of film. We have our lead character, Richard, who is a middle-aged Englishman but reminded me so much of a handsomely harried Cary Grant. He is sweet, slightly confused about life in general, and totally delighted by the adventures that his costar, in our case the beautiful Valerie, gets him into. He is both frustrated by her and totally over the moon about her. Their relationship is so fun to watch. And they are both firmly in middle age, not elderly, but definitely not spring chickens. Ha ha. Once you read the book, you’ll know why that chicken joke is funny. The mystery itself is not necessarily the best very mystery plotline I’ve ever read, but honestly that was so much a secondary concern as I was reading this book. All I wanted in this case was a frothy frolic and this was exactly what I got. With buttery, crisp edges. This is Death and Croissants by Ian Moore.

Elle P, Librarian

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