Death of a Chef

April 22, 2013
At the start of Campion’s delicious fourth mystery featuring Commissaire Capucine Le Tellier (after 2012’s Killer Critique), a newly purchased Louis Vuitton antique trunk delivered to the Paris apartment of Capucine’s best friend, Cécile, turns out to contain the naked body of a dead man. A signet ring on the corpse’s finger identifies the victim as three-star chef Jean-Louis Brault, whose only enemy is Le Figaro’s vituperative food critic, Lucien Folon, who claims Michelin will be taking away one of Brault’s stars in their next edition. A shotgun between Brault’s legs suggests he could have killed himself. The subsequent death (apparently accidental) of Firmin Roque, a former communist with a connection to the Faience pottery factory in which Brault had an interest, raises the stakes, as Capucine and her two assistants travel about the country in search of answers. Needless to say, they eat and drink well as the case draws to a satisfying conclusion. Agent: Sharon Bowers, the Miller Agency.