Death and Croissants by Ian Moore Book Review

Title: Death and Croissants

Author: Ian Moore

Year: 2022

Genre: Murder-Mystery, Crime, Cozy Crime

Narrator: John Higgins

Death and Croissants is the first in a new cozy crime series by TV and radio comedian Ian Moore, which was selected to be my book club’s read and as it was a crime novel I was quite excited to dive in.

Richard is a middle-aged Englishman who runs a B&B in the heart of France’s Loire Valley. He’s recently separated from his wife who has moved back to England but he very much likes the quiet life, keeping his guests happy whilst also reminiscing about the old-Hollywood movies that he adores.

However, when one of his guests mysteriously vanishes, leaving only a bloodied handprint on the wallpaper, Richard is thrust into solving the case. Helped along the way by his mysterious and enigmatic guest Valerie, the two are swept into an adventure involving the Mafia, assassins, alcohol smuggling and the death of Ava Gardner, one of Richard’s most-prized chickens.

Will they be able to solve the mystery behind Mssr. Grandchamp’s disappearance?

The first thing I loved about this book is the beautiful French setting and the chemistry between the two main characters in Richard and Valerie.

Listening to this book on cold winter mornings, it was very nice to be transported to a very sunny and warm climate and the book is very effective at taking you into this setting. I did learn from my book club Ian Moore does live there for some of the year and he really creates the French atmosphere in this book.

Richard is very straight-laced and has in many ways become stuck in a rut when Valerie comes into his life. The two together have plenty of madcap adventures and escapades during this book which are very entertaining to read, although the whole Richard wanting to stop and Valerie persuading him to continue on with their investigation does wear a bit thin later on in the book.

The characters they meet along the way are also very funny – my favourite was probably the middle-aged swingers who run a rival B&B  to Richard’s and there is a very funny scene where they offer Valerie a cup of tea whilst being in the nude which has the quite seaside-pier, Carry On style humour to it.

This book is very similar in vein to Richard Osman’s Thursday Murder Club series and The Marlow Murder Club by Robert Thorogood, both of which I have reviewed on the blog before. If you have enjoyed those then this book is very similar, although personally comparing these against each other I found those previous two to be more enjoyable.

Some of the humour in this book is based on Richard comparing events to classic movies which may or may not go over readers heads depending on if you have seen the movie, whereas those other two books have humour which is more directly but the people within the situation and the fact they are ageing.

Also some of the characters are quite stereotypical of the murder-mystery genre – there’s a bitter and mean old Judge who is the brother of Mssr. Grandchamp, the quite sweet cleaner who has more than meets the eye and there’s even a bounty hunter who dresses like a Texas cowboy.

There is also quite a big revelation about Valerie during the book which when we discussed it in the book club there was a consensus that no one really believed it as realistic character development.

There are also quite a few plot holes mentioned on Goodreads where much of the initial mystery appears to go unresolved, for example the daeth of one of Richard’s chickens isn’t really explained at all.

Overall the book is entertaining enough that you may want to pick it up for a quick, light read during these cold winter nights, especially if you like and are waiting for more books in those other two series but unfortunately I can’t really recommend it beyond that.