Death at a Paris Hotel
(Lady Eleanor Swift #22)
by Verity Bright
For Lady Eleanor Swift, Paris means champagne at breakfast, romantic walks by the Eiffel Tower… and her deadliest case yet!
Newlyweds Lady Swift and Detective Hugh Seldon are honeymooning in the most romantic city on earth. Clifford, her butler,has come along for the trip to make sure everything goes to plan for the happy couple. And Gladstone, the mischievous bulldog, to make sure it doesn’t!
But the pair are shocked when, just as they are toasting their new marriage at the best table in their hotel’s opulent restaurant, a man tumbles through the glass roof and lands amid the silverware and coq au vin. Before he dies, he presses a striking pearl brooch into Eleanor’s hands. She has the strangest feeling of déjà vu. Has she met this man before? All too quickly, the local police arrive and immediately accuse the new Mr. and Mrs. of working with the victim – a thief who’d just robbed the museum down the block.
With her new husband by her side, Eleanor races to clear their name and discover who would kill to get their hands on the unusual brooch. Following a clue about a doomed love affair takes the gang from the famous cabarets and cobbled streets of Paris to rubbing shoulders with the aristocracy at the very top of the Eiffel Tower.
But soon Eleanor notices a mysterious man in black following their every footstep. Is he friend or foe? And can Eleanor and Hugh unravel the case before the City of Light becomes the city of death?
An utterly charming and unputdownable golden age cozy mystery set in Paris. Fans of T.E. Kinsey, Catherine Coles, and Lee Strauss will adore it.
My Rating:
Favorite Quotes:
She never meant to be late. Distractions just seemed to impede her arriving on time.
…they were met by the fantastically sculpted side whiskers and moustache of Monsieur Omfroy emerging onto the street. He regarded them with a look of alarm. She reciprocated with a genial wave, fleetingly wondering if there was a Madame Omfroy in his life, or if his facial hair was companion enough.
He smiled like a hungry crocodile.
I pity those knights of old who tried to rescue damsels in distress with a stubborn rhinoceros streak like you though. I’d have crept off quietly and left you to the dragon.
‘He’s signaling discreetly to that man in overalls over there.’ Clifford sniffed. ‘Hardly discreetly, my lady. A touch of St Vitus’s dance would have been less noticeable.’
My Review:
I continue my hero worship of all things Verity Bright, as I have adored each installment of this delightful series. Their well-honed writing style is smooth and polished, easy to fall into, and amusingly entertaining, while the enigmatic mysteries and murders are well-contrived and cleverly plotted. This volume ranks as one of my favorites because the couple is finally wed and on a Parisian honeymoon, which places the Scotland Yard detective on vacation and shows his unexpected, marshmallow-like, gooey, soft romantic side. Their honeymoon was certainly memorable and eventful.
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Verity Bright is the pseudonym for a husband-and-wife writing partnership that has spanned a quarter of a century. Starting out writing high-end travel articles and books, they published everything from self-improvement to humor, before embarking on their first historical mystery. They are the authors of the fabulous Lady Eleanor Swift Mystery series, set in the 1920s.
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