By Liz Soares
Delicious!
I can sum up my experience with Murder on the Île Sordou with that one word. The setting is yummy—a newly-restored hotel on a private island off the coast of Provence. The food, wine and even coffee are scrumptious. The story is a mystery connoisseur’s delight.
One might be tempted to chow down this books in great chunks, but it’s really better savored.
This is the fourth in a series of “Provencal Mysteries,” by M. L. Longworth, an American transplant who’s lived in France for more than a decade. She is keenly perceptive of the French mode de vie and her depictions of it rings true—at least to this francophile.
Judge Antoine Verlaque and law professor Marine Bonnet are an interesting couple. He’s a short, stout, yet undeniably attractive, lover of all the good things in life. Verlaque, the heir to a flour mill fortune, appreciates fine wines and food. He is also a member of a cigar club, and takes great pleasure in smoking his Cubans. Verlaque’s grandmother was English, and he speaks the language well.
Bonnet is a tall, willowy redhead. Her father is a doctor. Bonnet’s mother, an academic, did not care about food in the way that seems to be a French national pastime. She bought food that was inexpensive and easy to prepare. Thus, Marine does not have quite the same tastes as her romantic partner—but she’s learning.
This latest installment in the series finds the couple on vacation from their life and work in the prosperous and cultural city of Aix-en-Provence. In previous novels, we’ve seen them investigate murders at a neglected manor house, the university in Aix, and a vineyard. All of the settings have been fascinating, but the Île de Sordou is truly a miracle.
“‘Sea and only sea, all the way to Africa,’ Hugo Sammut told the guests. He had been on the island for two months and was still mesmerized by the view.”
A small, select group of visitors has been invited to the Île de Sordou by innkeepers Maxime and “Cat-Cat” LeBon, who have just finished renovating the island’s hotel, the Locanda Sordou. It was, in the 1960s, a haunt for the rich and famous. The LeBons have kept some of the vintage touches, especially in the dazzling “Jacky Bar.”
Joining them is Marine’s best friend, Sylvie, a free-spirited photographer who often tests Verlaque’s patience. There’s an elderly American couple; a once-famous film star, his wife and stepson; a retired English teacher; and a Parisian couple. Verlaque knows the husband from school.
The hotel has only a small staff, but chef Emile Villey is a treasure. He locally sources as many ingredients as possible, no mean feat considering he is working on a remote island. Walking around one morning, he discovers some apricot trees. The fruit turns up in a tart served that evening. The guests also enjoy fresh sea bream, zucchini soup with Alpine crème fraîche, tiny squid in a white wine reduction, and even rougets (small red fish) caught by the American, and rabbits shot by the island’s only full-time resident, Prosper Buffa.
The week is going fairly well, considering the hoteliers have to iron out some kinks, but then one of the guests is found murdered. When a storm cuts off communication to the mainland, the guests can’t help but worry. The murderer must be among them.
In the tempest’s wake, police commissioner Bruno Paulik, another series regular, arrives on the island to help Verlaque and Bonnet resolve the case.
In this installment, Longworth veers, successfully, from her usual style. The reader gets to see the stories and backgrounds of the hotel staff in individual chapters devoted to each of them. We learn about one person’s anger-management problems, for example, and another’s stint in jail.
But, not surprisingly, the highlight of the book is the sumptuous setting and the continuing relationship between Verlaque and Bonnet. Though they started the series on “the outs,” they are solidly together now—and le juge might even be starting to feel a little, um, paternal.
Bon appétit!
