Review
I have had a soft spot for Brits-in-France narratives ever since falling in love as a teenager with Peter Mayle’s A Year in Provence. As a cosy mystery of a middle-aged Brit (and his hens!) navigating cultural differences while running a B&B in the Loire Valley, Death and Croissants is guaranteed to tick some of those boxes. Rural pleasures. Tick. British bafflement and French oddities. Tick.
I did really warm to Richard, the middle-aged Brit in question, as the sort of stock figure. He is a slightly warmer, cozier Men Behaving Badly type. His views of the opposite sex are a bit unreconstructed (read: Clarkston-lite, but not really that heartfelt). But he has hens, who he loves, and names after glamorous female figures, and the put-upon sentiment of John Cleese’s manic hotelier, but again with more warmth. He really is a cozied up version of A Certain British Bloke.
His head is so turned by glamorous guest Valérie d’Orçay that our stodgy and slightly boring chap is drawn into investigating the disappearance of another guest, who has left a bloody handprint on Richard’s wall and not much else to go on. The pair zigzag through a number of over-egged scenarios (ironic, given that the death of a hen is a precipitating factor in Richard’s agreeing to investigate!). It is not always clear what is holding the plot together aside from a desire to find an excuse to have the pleasure of keeping Valérie and Richard together. This is a murder mystery with twins (generally to be treated with extreme caution, per Knox), the obligatory apparently dim-witted policeman, an assortment of ‘humourous’ animals (not just the hens, but Passepartout the chihuahua) and a few other national stereotypes to boot (the mafia, a miscellaneous Texan). In such a short novel, it’s hard to do many of these justice.
Still, the book had some charm. Moore is funny (as one would expect), if you like the Dad-joke end of the humour spectrum. As we head towards the summer months, a light mystery with the whiff of French countryside about it is no bad thing!
See also
These lists capture other stories and characters that I thought of as I was reading this piece. I won’t explain why, to avoid spoilers, but they’re associations and not ‘if you liked this, then you’ll love…’ recommendations!
- A Beginner’s Guide to Breaking and Entering (Andrew Hunter Murray)
Take a look at my short story collection featuring Victorian “lady detective” Meinir Davies; order now! Or check out my academic work about detective and crime fiction (free PDFs available) right here.
Dominique Gracia 
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