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A Deadly Éclair

A French Bistro Mystery

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A Deadly Éclair

By: Daryl Wood Gerber
Narrated by: Suzanne Elise Freeman
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About this listen

It's always been Mimi Rousseau's dream to open her own bistro, but it seems beyond her grasp since she's been chased back home to Nouvelle Vie in Napa Valley by her late husband's tremendous debt. Until her best friend Jorianne James introduces her to entrepreneur Bryan Baker who invests in promising prospects. Now, working the bistro and inn until she's able to pay it off and call it her own, Mimi is throwing the inn's first wedding ever.

The wedding will be the talk of the town, as famous talk show host Angelica Barrington, daughter of Bryan's half-brother, Edison, has chosen the inn as her perfect venue. Anxious, Mimi is sure things are going to turn south, especially when Edison gets drunk and rowdy at the out-of-towners' dinner, but by the evening, things begin to look up again. That is until 6:00 a.m. rolls around, and Bryan is found dead at the bistro with an éclair stuffed in his mouth. And the fingers point at Mimi, whose entire loan is forgiven in Bryan's will.

Now it's up to Mimi to clear her name and get to the bottom of things before the killer turns up the heat again in A Deadly Éclair, the scrumptious series debut by Agatha Award-winning author Daryl Wood Gerber.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your Library section along with the audio.

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Monotonously, it has too much french pronunciation of food and not enough about the murder.

It's too much about the food.

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I've read other books where the author slips in recipes and their own food knowledge as part of the story and it's always a bit annoying. It provides colour to the story but in this book it seemed to be the only good descriptions, whereas the rest of the story was bland (couldn't help myself), not described well and far less cohesive. The author should have just written a gruyere cheese and egg cookbook. The main character is a classic Mary Sue, she does everything perfectly despite having a complete lack of personality (apart from when she describes food) and never saying anything interesting, kind or charming to anyone, she manages to get people who don't know her - and who have secrets - to tell her everything they did and thought without any resistance (including about their loved ones who you'd assume they would try to protect, not throw under the bus to a nosey stranger) and only sometimes did the author think to include a character referring to her being nosey and it being none of her business...but it didn't stop the other characters from telling her everything first, and then the next time they see her forgiving her for her impertinence and rudeness and continuing to tell her everything. Whilst perfect, she's also the classic neurotic female character who thinks the worst of everything and everyone, is insecure and does nothing to earn the loyalty of her perfect and overworked staff (though her 'perfect' chef freaks out when they run out of dessert and can't look at their stores and suggest something they can make, even though everything seems to only take a few minutes to cook? Mary Sue to the rescue!). Convenience for the story was more important than consistency or depth of characters.

It was an ok mystery, but the author didn't put enough clues in the story for the reader to play along with solving it and the red herrings were weak. The solution was also weak. The whole book wreaked of trying to prove something and failed. It's not a great read but I've read a lot worse and I'll admit I did keep reading it to find out what happened next (even if I nearly gave up a few times). Good enough if you've nothing else to read and a few hours to kill.

So-so story but good enough for a short read

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I had to stop listening after a couple of chapters because I couldn’t bear the boring, monotonous narration.
I may give it another go at some point in case it was my mood at time of listening.

Poor performance

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