An Island of Suspects

December 1, 2024

Bannalec's latest in his Brittany-set series (after Death of a Master Chef) is filled with the natural wonders and food of Belle-�le. In the midst of an August heat wave, Commissaire Georges Dupin is called to the scene when a body is found tangled in buoy nets. Someone has strangled Patric Provost, evidently hoping the tide would carry his body out to sea. Dupin follows Provost's trail to Belle-�le, the largest Breton island. In the little village there, Provost was the largest land owner, disliked by everyone. It's a very insular community, and no one is willing to reveal much, so Dupin must push for answers. He finds notes indicating that Provost was blackmailed, and his dog is missing. Then another islander is kidnapped, and a ransom demand left behind. Every one of the few suspects seems to have an alibi. Is it the August heat or the mysticism and legends of the island that leave Dupin dizzy and confused in this bewildering investigation? VERDICT This slow-paced, descriptive mystery should appeal to fans of Agatha Christie's Murder on the Orient Express.--Lesa Holstine

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December 9, 2024
The sturdy 10th installment in Bannalec’s series featuring food-obsessed French detective Georges Dupin (after Death of a Master Chef) sets a locked-room mystery on an island off the Brittany coast. A body found on a navigation buoy is quickly identified as that of Patric Prevost, the wealthiest and most disagreeable resident of Belle-Île, famed for its needlelike rock formations that inspired Claude Monet. Dupin’s initial questioning reveals Prevost to have been deeply unloved and alienated from others by his fortune. As Dupin digs further, the responses by Prevost’s neighbors, tenants, and the island’s mayor frustrate him. When Prevost’s estate is totaled at $20 million, and it emerges that much of it is willed to the island’s improvement, there’s plenty of motive, but no obvious suspect. Then an islander is kidnapped, and Prevost’s ex-wife is found strangled to death after making a frantic phone call for help. The mystery’s satisfying solution ties neatly into the series’s focus on food. While the pacing sometimes drags, with sidebars about Breton culture slowing the action, fans will enjoy Dupin’s characteristically wry observations. It’s a satisfying enough series entry.

January 1, 2025
Bannalec's mysteries are drenched in the variegated landscape and extraordinary cuisine of Brittany. In this, the tenth Brittany Mystery, Bannalec outdoes himself by setting the plot on Belle-�le-en-Mer, the largest island off Brittany's coast, whose enormous cliffs, rock formations, and ever-changing light were painted by Monet and Matisse. The body of a wealthy resident of the island is found across the bay on the mainland, entangled in ropes attached to a buoy, making for an extremely difficult crime scene. The case belongs to series hero Commissaire Georges Dupin, who travels to Belle-�le to investigate who may have murdered wealthy landowner Patric Provost on the island and then transported his body across the bay. As the title indicates, any of a host of people on the island previously cheated and maltreated by skinflint Provost could have wanted him permanently gone. Plot and characterization definitely take a back seat to regional atmosphere, history, and cuisine in the Brittany Mysteries, but the trade-off is well worth it.

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March 1, 2025
A beautiful Breton island is the scene of an ugly murder. Two days before Commissaire Georges Dupin is scheduled to mark his 10th year in Brittany with a party planned by his colleagues, he gets a call about a body found in the harbor at Do�lan. The dead man turns out to be Patric Provost, a resident of Belle-�le, one of three small islands off the Breton coast. Dupin's decade of service has never before brought him to Belle-�le, and he's instantly smitten. The sea offers a cavalcade of blues, and the lichen-covered rocks glitter green, silver, lavender, and even pink. Each turn of the road brings a vista more spectacular than the last. Dupin's investigation is far more prosaic. Provost was a miserable old codger who seemed bent on thwarting the hopes and dreams of every one of his Bellilois neighbors. So, as the title suggests, there's no dearth of suspects. Unfortunately, Dupin's thorough interviews generate a timetable that eliminates all of them. It takes considerable ingenuity and luck to determine who could have been in the right places at the right times to dispatch Provost, but insight strikes in the nick of time, allowing Dupin's well-deserved celebration to go forward as planned. The star of the show, as always, is the meticulously described local color, with extra marks this time for showcasing a little-known gem. Bannalec's puzzle may be timeworn, but his Brittany is timeless.

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