Monsieur Pamplemousse Rests His Case

A noted food critic and amateur sleuth, Monsieur Pamplemousse attends a masquerade banquet honoring Alexandre Dumas and has to find a killer when one of the guests is murdered

If this seventh haute cuisine adventure by the author of the Paddington Bear children's books strikes new readers as initially precious, it rapidly becomes deliciously funny. M. Pamplemousse, retired from the Surete, is representing Le Guide magazine in Vichy, where six celebrated American mystery writers are recreating a gourmet feast supposedly once hosted by Alexandre Dumas. The Inspector arrives at the dinner as instructed, costumed as D'Artagnan and riding a horse--a wickedly unreliable horse. All too soon he finds himself thrown into a rural ditch, arrested and handcuffed, pursued on foot over the fields, locked in a country brothel (and rescued by his dog Pommes Frites), tucked in a hotel bed with a ravishing American gourmet-magazine publisher (and desperately trying to conceal the fact from his suspicious spouse, who has popped in from Paris). At the same time he's coping with two fake murders and one genuine one. "Pas de probleme," exults Pamplemousse, perhaps too soon. A delectable souffle.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

A return for the bumbling, inept Monsieur Pamplemousse, restaurant reviewer for Le Guide, who this time out must solve the poisoning death of an American mystery writer, one of the six attendees at a gala Vichy dinner re-creating an elaborate Alexandre Dumas menu. Party organizer and food-magazine publisher Mrs. Van Dorman takes a shower (for reasons too silly to mention) in Pamplemousse's room; four-legged sidekick Pommes Frites noshes, as usual, on this and that; and Pamplemousse, after doffing his D'Artagnon costume (don't ask), retranslates the mystery writer's dying words, then bids adieu to all--including a lover spurned by both him and the corpse. A more appropriate title would have been Murder as a Side Dish, since no one--not even the author, it seems--is terribly interested in it. Some laughs at the expense of series writers (the gourmet detective, the classical-music sleuth, etc.), some tasty food selections, but, overall, very thin. -- Copyright ©1991, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Murder mars the reenactment of a famous meal by six illustrious mystery writers.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.