To Die in Provence

Jennifer Bowen, a young art history professor, gets more than she had bargained for when she agrees to chaperone the spoiled daughter of a successful TV producer during a trip to Provence and finds a young woman with a depraved ex-con boyfriend who will do anything to control the wealthy heiress. Reprint.

Norman Bogner's first thriller in 15 years is the grisly, noir side of Peter Mayle's sweet books about Provence (A Year in Provence, Chasing Cezanne, Hotel Pastis). Bogner offers a spooky evocation of the horror that can live alongside all that great food and scenery. We first find top copper Michel Danton recovering from shotgun wounds while working in his father's restaurant in Aix, where "fresh strings of Arles sausage and legs of jambon de Bayonne slyly waltzed on their hooks in the window." Michel's father is a tyrant, and his latest lady friend has just dumped him, so he's ready for a new case. Enter Darrell Vernon Boynton, a charming young psychopath called Boy by the women he conquers and the wealthy tourists he murders. Boy is a true descendant of Hannibal Lecter, and the only reason he hasn't eaten any of his victims is that the other food in Provence is too tempting. But be warned: not many other atrocities are beyond his imagination. As Bogner has proven in such previous blockbusters as Seventh Avenue and California Dreamers, he has the imagination to create nightmare landscapes in all manner of settings--and the writing skills to quickly make us a part of them. --Dick Adler