Warning: this review contains spoilers

****

It did take a while for the murder to happen in this installment of the Verlaque and Bonnet series, but I liked it better than previous installments that had long buildups to the murder. I’m still not entirely clear on why Marine was dressing up and playing a character to get a recording about Alain Sorba’s sleaziness, but perhaps I was reading too quickly and missed it.

Also, to me it was very quickly obvious that Marine was pregnant, but perhaps I’ve watched too many TV shows or read too many books where this becomes a logical plot development, so I am extremely alert to the slightest of hints. Not sure how I feel about them adding a kid to the mix; it might make their crime solving a bit more challenging! ( )

A NOEL KILLING is written by M. L. Longworth. The title is Book #8 - a Verlaque and Bonnet Provencal Mystery.
It is Christmastime in Aix-en-Provence and the holiday markets and traditional festivities all make an appearance.
Intelligent, realistic characters; dazzling locations; thoughtful plots; wonderful food and wine - all offer up a very good read.
I like this series and particular title very much. **** ( )

In general, this series has been excellent in every way, but this one wasn't its strongest entry.

The narrative meandered. A lot. It took several chapters to get a grip on what was going on, and who was doing what to whom. There's a slow build up to the crime, which I don't mind, but because everything else was slow too, it was a battle to keep my attention on the book.

Once things did start moving, they felt scattered and disorganised, though this improved quite a bit as the story progressed. Still, of the books I've read this month, this is the one I'm struggling most to remember anything about. It wasn't unpleasant or badly written, it just wasn't a strong plot and it lacked the usual strong writing, or perhaps strong editing.

I'm happy to blame it on Covid and hope that the next one measures up to the first 7. ( )

A good story, interesting premise: The one character we all dislike dies by mistake, which makes for a more complicated case... Who was the murderer, who was the intended victim... What about the bicyclist pushed off by a car?

But seriously? This book was long, drawn-out & Boooooooooooor-ing! And although, the wrong person was murdered, we still cheered! ( )

I received an ARC of this book for free from the author and publisher in exchange for an honest review.

You may be wondering why I read a Christmas book at the end of February. I actually started this book at the end of December but fell into a huge reading slump. I just got out of the slump and devoured this book in a few days.

This book is part of a series. I have not read any of the other books in the series but was still able to enjoy this book as a standalone.

I was a little confused at the beginning of the book because there were a lot of characters and it was hard to keep track of all of them and what they were doing. But once the murder happened, I quickly understood who everyone was.

I loved how French this book was. It’s very clear that the author lives in France. Reading this made me want to go to France so badly. The town seemed so quaint and the food sounded so heavenly.

This is a cozy mystery so there’s nothing earth-shattering about the mystery itself. I did want a little bit more at the end, particularly how everyone’s Christmases went.

Lastly, this book is set during Christmastime but it is not overly Christmasy. If you want to read it outside of the holiday season, then go for it!

Overall, this is a charming cozy mystery set in France. If you can’t take a trip to France, this book may be the next best thing! ( )