This is book three in the Follet Valley mystery series written by Ian Moore. This series is set in the fictional town of Saint-Sauver in the Loire region of France. It features Richard Ainsworth, a mild-mannered Englishman, and owner of a B&B as the amateur detective, along with Valerie D’Orsay, formerly of the French Secret Service, and now a bounty-hunter and his business partner in the detective and security agency that they started together.
Richard is a film historian and a movie buff. He loves old Hollywood movies and has an encyclopaedic knowledge of them. He can find a parallel in film for every situation he encounters. He’s a middle-aged gent who likes a quiet life, taking care of his chickens and running the B&B.
But things keep happening in the town, murder, theft, apparent accidents and disappearances, that Valerie, who is always in search of excitement, wants to investigate. Their association begins with Richard being swept along in her wake, but soon he begins to enjoy himself and he starts to apply his own unique skills to try to make sense of things.
Valerie is a formidable woman, intelligent, coldly logical, and able to hold her own against anyone. She’s fiercely determined to get to the bottom of every mystery she encounters. She knows nothing at all about films, so she doesn’t understand most of Richard’s allusions, and his sarcasm frequently flies over her head, but they make an excellent team.
Death at the Chateau sees Richard and Valerie providing security for a film crew who’ve taken over a château in the Loire Valley. The members of the crew are guests at Richard’s B&B. They’re making a historical film about Napoleon. The lead actress, Lionel Margot, has been having trouble with a stalker, so Richard and Valerie are primarily there to protect her.
Richard is in his element among the film crew. He likes watching them work and he quickly befriends the producer who takes a liking to him and decides to appoint him press officer. An actor dies in the middle of filming under suspicious circumstances. It’s ruled death by natural causes, but Richard and Valerie are not entirely convinced.
Then there’s another death, also seemingly by natural causes, the producer is mugged, the director has a bad case of food poisoning, there are more threatening messages from the stalker, and the press is hounding Richard for explanations, all while the crew are working round the clock to finish filming…
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I’ve read all five books in this series so far, and I can tell you that the entire series is good. The setting is idyllic, the writing is warm, funny and a touch whimsical. But what made this series for me are are the characters.
between the pages 