Night Train to Paris
(A Fen Churche Mystery #2)
by Fliss Chester
Meet Fen Churche, as she steps off the night train with the sun rising over Paris. Cat whisperer, crossword puzzler… accidental detective?
Autumn, 1945. Fen cannot wait to see her beloved godmother Rose, who has invited Fen to stay with her in the city of lights. As she arrives, Fen is dreaming of strolls by the Seine, taking tea at the Eiffel Tower and above all French feasts with Rose where they can trade stories of how they survived the terrifying war years.
But Fen has barely made friends with Rose’s bad-tempered poodle when she returns to the apartment to find her godmother murdered, a paintbrush stuck in her neck. Suddenly Fen is thrown into the middle of a truly puzzling mystery. Who on earth would want to murder Rose, a gentle artist and generous friend?
A blackmail letter convinces Fen that the police have got everything wrong and Fen knows she has to solve the case just like one of her crosswords, one clue at a time. As she meets her godmother’s friends, she makes a surprising discovery: Rose was part of the Resistance during the war…
When a second body turns up, another of Rose’s wartime contacts, Fen must act fast. But as the killer turns their sights on Fen, does she have what it takes to solve this mysterious murder and get justice for her darling godmother?
You won’t be able to put down this utterly addictive historical cozy mystery! The absolutely perfect treat if you love Agatha Christie, Rhys Bowen, and Jacqueline Winspear.
My Rating:
Favorite Quotes:
Fen shook her head in disbelief. She’d heard of pretty girls turning men’s heads, but this one seemed to have twisted James’s noggin right off.
Her brother had once threatened to throw her over this bridge when she’d naughtily flicked one of his toy soldiers into the Seine. Her claims that the little fellow wanted to be a sub-mariner hadn’t cut the mustard and sibling relations had hit rather a low point.
My Review:
This was a head-scratcher and rollicking good multileveled mystery encompassing several complicated cases involved past participants of the French Resistance, art theft, forgery, and murder in post-war Paris. The highly likable main characters of Fen and her newly acquired friend, James, met the likes of a young Christian Dior, Pierre Balmain, and the already famous Josephine Baker. My poor old coronary muscle squeezed each time the iconic Notre Dame was mentioned. The engaging storylines were enjoyable and poked at my curiosity with tough cases and somewhat undecipherable clues while populated with an oddly unique and generally untrustworthy cast of secondary Gaelic characters. Being a fan of crosswords, I particularly enjoyed Fen’s continued deployment of puzzle strategies in her efforts of working her way through the perplexing crimes.
I garnered a new entry for my Brit Words and Phrases list with “up the spout;” which Mr. Google informed me has two meanings – one being something that was no longer in working order and for a woman – pregnancy. I also learned the clever origin of the term “bangers” for sausages being the high water content used in the meats during the war that caused them to explode or “bang” in the frying pan.
About the Author
Glad to see you had a great time with this book. Yay to the new words you discovered.
Ooh, this sounds so enjoyable! Thanks for sharing your review!
Sounds like a lovely book. I love the Brit words you find. Also over hear the word sausage can only be used on the packet if they have a certain amount of meat and contain no offal. If they do they have to have Bangers not sausages wrote on the packet.