Mastering the Art of French Murder

Mastering the Art of French Murder (Book 1 American in Paris series) by Colleen Cambridge   283 pages

When I first read the title of this new mystery series, I swear I could hear Julia Child’s real-life voice. I had no idea that the kitchen magician herself was going to be a secondary character in this new series. I was so delighted!

Set in the Paris of 1949, Tabitha Knight has come to the City of Lights from Detroit to find herself. She’s twenty-nine years old, recently broken her four-year engagement to Henry and has lost her job at the Willow Run Bomber Plant where she helped to build B-24 Liberator planes. She was a real Rosie the Riveter! And on top of all the that, the woman---her grandmother-- who helped raise her has died. She is lost and decides to go spend some time with her grandfather, who still lives in Pari with his best friend.

Tabitha made friends with Julia, who happens to live across the street and down the block. They became fast friends although Tabitha can barely boil an egg. Julia’s sister, Dort lives with the Childs’. Dort works for the American Club Theater, which performs at Theater Monceau. The cast and crew are often at Julia’s apartment after shows or rehearsals.

After one such evening, the body of one of the other theater employees, Therese, turns up brutally murdered----in the basement of the Childs’ apartment building. Tabitha was the last person to see her alive and is immediately a suspect.

Concerned that she will be arrested and impatient with police procedures, Tabitha begins her own investigation. And the bodies begin to pile up. I was surprised by so many bodies that dot the pages.

This first book in the series is simultaneously funny and creepy. The opening scene about the mayonnaise was a delight! I could hear Julia’s real-life voice booming from the pages. I also liked that she was the sidekick and not the main character. I did wonder if there were some gay undertones between Tabitha’s grandfather and his best friend, Oncle Rafe (Tabitha’s honorary uncle), but it doesn’t matter.

The descriptions of the food and wine were spot-on…not too much nor too little. I was salivating through the entire book. However, there is only one thing, no two things, missing: The recipes for the perfect roasted chicken and mayonnaise! “Mastering the Art of French Murder” receives 5 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world.

Publishing date April 2023

Provence, 1970: M.F.K. Fisher, Julia Child, James Beard, and the Reinvention of American Taste

Provence, 1970: M.F.K. Fisher, Julia Child, James Beard, and the Reinvention of American Taste by Luke Barr  309 Pages

When I was a kid, I always admired my grandmother, who shopped daily for the family and the priests she for whom she cared. It seemed cool and at the same time, like a lot of work.  I’m a Baby Boomer from the late 1950s. During my childhood, and up until say about twenty years ago, food and its preparation was focused on quick and easy. No one wanted to cook anymore, everything was canned, frozen, and drive-through. I vividly remember the first Banquet frozen TV dinner that Momma put in the oven after weeks of begging for it.  It was ghastly. I’ve never eaten one since.

But back in the 1970s, people like M.F.K. Fisher, Julia Child, James Beard were trying to bridge the gap between the between the exotic, complicated gourmet cooking and cooking for every day. Julia is perhaps the most famous of these chefs, thanks to television. But the others were making their mark.

Barr, having access to his great-aunt M.F.K. Fisher’s papers, has given readers a look back at those who were changing the way we eat. The story centers around the six best known food writers of the 1970s: M. F. K. Fisher, James Beard, Julia Child, Simone Beck, Judith Jones, and Richard Olney. They found themselves in Provence, France, at roughly the same time, meeting with, and talking to one another.

Their influence on getting back to natural products, cooking from scratch, and not being afraid to try new things that is still influencing professional and home chefs today.

Barr’s book gives is a history but reads like a novel. It’s an intricate look at the six chefs and how they worked, ate, played, and their interactions with each other. The climax of the book that week in December 1970, when the six gathered at Julia and Paul Childs’ vacation home in France. I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall. The downfall of the book, to me is a personal one. I'm not familiar with French cooking. Therefore, when the menu was presented in French terms, I often had no idea was what being served. 

I received this book for free from Blogging for Books for this review.