Showing results by author "Lise McClendon" in All Categories

When Merle's husband dies suddenly the will is quite a shock. And so is an intriguing surprise - Harry left her a family home in a tiny French village. She had no idea he owned the house where he was born. Merle sets out to claim her inheritance, adolescent son in tow, and thus begins a sojourn reminiscent of A Year in Provence, or perhaps Under The Tuscan Sun.

When a convoy of wealthy Americans touring France in vintage cars rolls into Merle Bennett’s quiet village, it seems like the perfect summer diversion—sunshine, old cars, and blood red wine. But when one of the drivers vanishes without a trace, the idyllic getaway grinds to a halt. Now, the glamorous château-turned-hotel is locked down by a gruff French detective, and tensions among the elite guests are rising fast.

Lise McClendon’s second Bennett Sisters mystery chronicles the traditional hunt for priceless European truffles, the unexpected thrill of romance overseas, the ups and downs of sisterly bonding, and murderous intrigue in the heart of France. The Girl in the Empty Dress is a delicate mix of sisterly laughs and international intrigue, sure to delight cozy mystery fans and armchair travelers alike.

Pascal d'Onscon, once terrorizing wine fraud scammers across southern France, is now pushing papers for the French bureaucracy in the modern Cité du Vin in Bordeaux. But not for long. He dreams of being a vintner, his hands in the dirt, the grape on his tongue, blending his very own creation: a bottle of wine with his own label. His companion, Merle Bennett, the middle of five lawyer sisters, has her own aspirations. Two tiny cottages are begging to be renovated for summer rentals. Will the person camping in the back garden scuttle her plans?

Dead Flat is a mystery in three parts in the Bennett Sisters Mystery Series. Featuring Frenchman, Pascal d'Onscon. Pascal is a wine fraud policeman who is called out of the Dordogne to investigate a bottle scam in Champagne as a favor to his boss. Thus begins a whirlwind August for Pascal and Merle, as he must also rescue his sister from a bad domestic situation, investigate the suspicious death of a vintner, and decide if he will accept a desirable promotion that will take him to headquarters in Paris - and away from his life with Merle Bennett.

When Elise Bennett, youngest of the five sisters, is invited to spend the long holiday break with her new boyfriend, Conor (from Lost in Lavender) she is thrilled. Who wouldn't be? A remote Welsh manor house, a chance to mix with the clan, long walks on the snowy hillsides - but things are not so simple in the countryside. Not with this family.

Facing a crossroads - both career-wise and personal - Elise, the youngest of the five Bennett Sisters, does what she does best: She runs away to think. This time, she runs to a farm in Provence that produces heaven-scented lavender for oils. The area is famous for the beautiful purple flower, the symbol of this southern region of France. Her sisters are stumped.

The next-to-youngest Bennett sister, Francie Bennett (blame it on Paris!) is a hard-charging attorney whose boyfriend Dylan Hardy invites her to join him in Paris to help with a client. When Axelle Fourcier left Paris behind after the student riots of 1968, she vowed never to go back. She made a life for herself in America as a professor. But now, a beloved aunt, aged 104, has died and left her an inheritance to be shared with a cousin she never met.

When Francie Bennett, fourth in the line of lawyer/sisters, comes under suspicion at her law firm, she is mortified to learn she must take a leave of absence. Just a formality, they say, but she is sure this is the end of her law career. Will she sit around her apartment and eat cheese, drink wine, and binge Netflix while it gets worked out? Zut alors! Non! She is off to Paris to help spring a student jailed for serious drug crimes. She stays with her sister Merle and her boyfriend, the debonair policier Pascal, while trying to navigate the murky waters of the French criminal system.

Deep in the French countryside - as the country reels through rebellion, beheadings, and starvation - a goat herder named Odette is trying to survive. Just that is on her mind - survival. Since she marched to Versailles with a group of Parisian women to protest the high prices of wheat, her life has spun out of control. She's fled the capital for the countryside. But what will happen to her? Can she stay in the Dordogne, where the kindly farmers have taken pity on her?

Aspiring chef Hannah Wendt has a multitude of talents - prowess in the kitchen and in the bedroom - but also a penchant for disposing of bothersome chefs. Wronged by those who steal her recipes, ridicule her weight, and denigrate her talents, Hannah has turned in her apron as sous chef and food stylist to plow new territory - her overpowering hunger for revenge. Hooked on how tasty payback can be, soon she is bumping off famous chefs who've burned her ego with spectacular culinary flair.

When the gray wolf was reintroduced to the US through Yellowstone National Park, it restored a balance of power among the wildlife in our most cherished national park and all across the West. Here is a story of one wolf, a grizzled "blue" wolf, modeled after one of the first to be set free. Alix Thorssen is an art dealer in Jackson Hole. When a reclusive artist she's courting for a big charity auction asks her to look into the long-ago murder of her son, she plunges deep into a feud between wildlife activists, environmentalists, and ranchers.

Stretched thin between her sisters in the US and her new life in France, Merle Bennett is feeling the strain of obligations. That is even before Pascal's grape harvest goes sideways, her father falls ill, and her older sister shows up in France unexpectedly. Her son Tristan and sister Stasia then inexplicably disappear.

Hank was found standing over the body of visiting Norwegian artist Glasius Dokken. When Hank won't say a word in his own defense, it falls to his step-daughter, Alix Thorssen, to clear him and uncover who actually sent Dokken, the painter of myths, to Valhalla.

Art expert Alix Thorssen is asked to appraise the charred ruins of a friend's local gallery. The tragedy doubles when artist Ray Thornton's body is found among the debris. The death is ruled a suicide; the fire, arson. Case closed. But not for Alix, who doesn't believe the body was Thornton's.

Whoever killed Shiloh Merkin hated her and wanted her dead. Her brother-in-law, Wade, is accused of the murder. An Indian activist and zealous defender of Native Montana lands, despised by Shiloh's New Age women's group, his knife appears to be the murder weapon. But Alix Thorssen, art dealer and forgery expert, knows there is no artistry in slashing a woman's throat, and believes Wade isn't the killer.

When her sister volunteers to help renovate the two cottages she owns in France, Merle is happy to have company. The cottages are a disaster–especially one that has mostly been inhabited by rodents for years. But inside the cottage are surprises. A packet of letters dating from World War One intrigue Merle. What happened to this soldier who was writing to his girlfriend back in England? Does his last letter, telling her to forget him, mean something terrible happened to him?