Mastering the Art of French Murder by Colleen Cambridge

It is quite trendy to write mysteries around famous, real-life characters and I tend to stay far away from these undertakings, as I usually find them unconvincing, anachronistic, or both. However, my friends at Publishers Weekly raved about this new series which features Midwesterner Tabitha Knight, who is making a protracted visit to her grandfather in Paris after WWII and meets aspiring chef Julia Child at the local market. 

Just as shoppers in Cambridge used to report running into Child and experiencing her breezy friendliness at Savenor's Butcher Shop, Tabitha is befriended by the outgoing Child at the local market. During the war, Child had worked for General William J. Donovan’s Office of Strategic Services as a researcher (see The Secret Stealers) before being posted to Ceylon, where she met Paul Child, also with OSS. After the war ended and they were married, he joined the Foreign Service and was posted to Paris. It was there that Child became interested in food and began to learn how to cook. She took lessons at the famous Cordon Bleu cooking school and, eventually, took on the mission of making French cooking accessible to Americans.

Tabitha is living with her grandfather and his companion, Oncle Rafe, and giving an occasional French lesson to families from the Embassy, referred by Paul Child. She had worked at a bomber plant in Detroit during the war and is restless afterward when she is expected to return to a more feminine role; eventually her mother suggested she visit her French grandfather. Meeting Julia inspires Tabitha to learn how to cook and Julia’s sister Dorothy (Dort) introduces her to colleagues from the American Club Theater. The morning after an impromptu party at the Childs’ apartment, the body of one of the guests is discovered by Julia’s part-time maid. Julia and Tabitha are questioned by the stern but inevitably handsome Inspecteur Merveille, who is not unreasonably suspicious:

The sense of foreboding that had merely knitted into the back of my mind like a settling kitchen suddenly turned into deep, gouging swipes. For I knew what Merveille was about to say just before he spoke.

“Or perhaps it is not the blood that is upsetting you, Madame Child, but the fact that you recognize this very knife?” The inspecteur pinned her with cold eyes. “This is your knife, is it not, Madame Child? It was your knife, taken from your very own kitchen, that was used to kill this pauvre Mademoiselle Thérèse . . . sometime early this morning.”

Not only was Tabitha the last person to interact with Thérèse, as they left the party together, but also it seems probable that one of the Dort’s theater friends was the murderer. Tabitha decided to investigate, egged on by Julia, Grand-pere, and Oncle Rafe, although decidedly not by the inspecteur!

With an appealing French setting and a convincing fictional version of Julia Child, this was a strong series launch and a skillful narrator almost made me feel I was listening to exuberant Julia. The descriptions of the Paris markets and Julia’s cooking adventures are mouth-watering while readers like me will relate Tabitha’s inexperience in the kitchen. I do think that when four specific individuals are suspected of murder it would make sense to avoid all of them until the inspecteur finds his man, but then there would be no story!

This is my 35th book for Carol’s Cloak and Dagger Challenge.
Title: Mastering the Art of French Murder: An American in Paris Mystery
Author: Colleen Cambridge
Narrator: Polly Lee
Publication: Highbridge audio, 2023
Genre: Mystery/series
Source: Library