If you’d like an intriguing mystery story peopled with unique characters, enhanced with descriptions of mouth watering edibles and lush pictures of the Italian and French country side Murder in the Rue Dumas is the book for you.

Still, I enjoyed this book even though it was often hard to concentrate on it. I'm now on the next one. Longworth is an engaging and entertaining writer who holds readers with not only interesting tidbits (such as dropping into Les Deux Garcons, the café where Cezanne and Zola once exchanged ideas), and the badinage between Verlaque and Bonnet while at the same time spinning a mystery.Enter Judge AntoineVerlaque and Inspector Bruno Paulik to systematically interview the usual suspects from among the faculty and student body. Longworth never rushes the plot along and some readers may be disracted by several of her musings on travel, cooking and love, but we found each delightful. Each of these digressions enhanced our overall enjoyment of the story. Of course the mystery is solved in the end, both by intuition and solid clues but honestly, with “Murder in the Rue Dumas,” it is the journey to it we appreciated most. In Sept. 2011, I first discovered Mary Lou Longworth and her first mystery ( Murder at the Chateau Bremont) set in Aix-en-Provence. I waited, impatiently at times, for her follow up books. It is worth the wait. Aided by his on-again, off-again girlfriend, law professor Marine Bonnet, Berlaque must turn Provence upside down, uncovering a world far more complicated than university politics, to find the killer before it’s too late. French-set mysteries have never been more popular [and] among the very best is a series set in Provence featuring Monsieur Verlaque, an examining magistrate, and his sometime girlfriend, law professor Marine Bonnet.”— The Denver Post

Beguiling . . . Longworth evokes the pleasures of France in delicious detail—great wine, delicious meals, and fine company.”— Publishers WeeklyThe investigation is headed by Verlaque, a judge who maintains good relations with the men he works with as well as benefiting from the helping hand of his girlfriend, Marine Bonnet, a law professor. The head of Aix University’s Theology is expected to announce both the winner of the prestigious Dumas fellowship, and, with his retirement, the appointment of his successor—who will acquire his very luxurious apartment. Before any of this occurs, he is found having been murdered in his office. Police commissioner Bruno Paulik, his boss examining magistrate Judge Antoine Verlaque, and the judge’s lover, law professor Marine Bonnet, seek the killer In 2021, it was announced that BritBox planned to adapt Longworth’s novels into a series titled Murder In Provence. [1] The series debuted in March 2022 with co-stars Endeavour actor Roger Allam in the lead role of Antoine Verlaque, alongside Nancy Carroll ( The Crown) as his romantic partner Marine Bonnet. [2] Mary Lou Longworth, known as M. L. Longworth, is a Canadian author best known for her Verlaque and Bonnet series of detective novels set in Aix-en-Provence. In het eerste hoofdstuk is te lezen dat Yann en Thierry, twee goede vrienden, op weg zijn een feestje. Het begint allemaal heel “cosy” en Longworth neemt uitgebreid de tijd om de personages voor te stellen en de omgeving te omschrijven. Hieruit blijkt maar weer dat ze hier een kei in is.

And being a French intellectual snob, why are all the Judge's literary heroes and touchstones English or American? Yes , he had an English grandmother, but that is no excuse; he had a very expensive exclusive French education and appears not to give much of a damn about his heritage other than food. And no self-respecting French intellectual has ever read any Larkin, and probably has never heard of him. Nor, for that matter, would he count distances in miles ::eyeroll:: The latest book in the Verlaque & Bonnet Mystery series, The Curse of La Fontaine, is available now from Penguin Books! Furthermore, a suspect with Church connections would have made a very worthwhile and entertaining addition to the mix of potential wrong-doers (and motives), an opportunity lost through bad preparation. Spoiler: the who-why-how is one of the weakest I have ever encountered in a murder mystery. The pair investigate murders, mysteries and the dark underbelly of their idyllic home in the south of France. Alas I couldn’t actually cook as Antoine, because the kitchen on set in his house just wasn’t practical and I might have burned something down.”

Making a return appearance in Longworth’s second mystery are magistrate Antoine Verlaque and his girlfriend law professor Marine Bonnet. He has been called to investigate the murder of Dr. Georges Moutte, chair of the Theology Department at the University d’Aix. Moutte’s soon-to-be retirement has become a permanent one, hastened by blows to his head delivered by a blunt instrument. Verlaque is assisted by Paulik in interrogating faculty members, students, and those in attendance at a party the night before. Verlaque is, mede door de invloed van Marine Bonnet, iets milder geworden, en hoewel hun relatie nog in een wat aftastende fase zit, zijn ze duidelijk wel gek op elkaar. Marine heeft een kleinere rol, maar zodra zij samenwerken krijgt het onderzoek die sprankeling en de vaart die het nodig heeft, dus meer Marine in een volgend boek, graag! Dit is een licht, sfeervol en vermakelijk mysterie met een leuke setting, interessante personages en soms net iets te veel details, maar ook een mooi afgerond onderzoek en nieuwe vraagtekens die je nieuwsgierig maken naar een volgend boek. Another egregious plot device which made me want to throw the book across the room was that our hero, a JUDGE, deliberately breaks into premises outside his jurisdiction with his accomplice a LAW PROFESSOR, based on nothing more than a hunch and conjecture. In the real world they would both have been fired and prosecuted, not been invited to dinner. And they aren't even contrite about it. Even so, the whole sequence should have been resolved with a simple telephone call (which, in a way, it ultimately is).

Although the author is British, her absolute love of all things French and Italian, shines through. Almost more than anything else, the book is a delight to read for its detailed descriptions of foods and wines, while art—I’d not known before of Gallés glass and ex-votos--, history—during the plague, the town fathers of Aix closed the city gates resulting in the plague passing without the loss of a single life in Aix--, literature—“What will survive of us is love.”--, and the French countryside receive their fair share of attention, as well.Death at the Château Bremontoffers charming French locales, vivid characters and an intriguing who-done-it.”—Kevin R. Kosar, author of Whiskey: A Global History What really makes Longworth’s writing special is her deep knowledge of French history, landscape, cuisine, and even contemporary cafes and restaurants. This is that rare atmospheric mystery that is street-wise and café-canny.”— Booklist (starred review)