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A few years after the end of World War II, Paris is recovering well from the war and returning to being a delightful place to visit and live. American Tabitha Knight has recently come for an extended stay with her French grandfather. She’s enjoying all the simple joys of the City of Light. And she happens to be living across the street from American couple Paul and Julia Child. Paul is a diplomat and Julia is deep into developing her cooking skills.
When a young woman is found murdered in the basement of the Childs’ apartment building, Tabitha decides to do some investigating herself. The woman had been in the Childs’ apartment before her murder, and Tabitha doesn’t want to see the charming couple implicated.
Julia’s younger sister frequently hosts gatherings of friends at the Childs’, and the people who included the victim are all working at the American Club Theater. So Tabitha goes to the theater and ends up helping out there. She also tracks down a number of clues. Of course, the inspecteur from the French police is not happy when he finds out what she’s doing. He insists it is dangerous — and Tabitha does indeed find herself in danger on several occasions. But she just can’t quite seem to help herself.
Mastering the Art of French Murder is a perfectly fine, clean murder mystery marrying postwar Paris with a murder mystery — and the personality and cooking of one Julia Child. Reading the book definitely made me feel much like Tabitha and her grandfather — that it would be nice to have Julia as a neighbor and enjoy her cooking. Neither the book nor the murder mystery at its core is particularly excellent or memorable, but it’s a nice confection that brings in a lot of the personality of Paris and of the one-of-a-kind Julia Child.
Rated: Mild. Profanity includes about 5 instances of moderate profanity, 25 uses of mild language, and a few instances of the name of Deity in vain. There are some brief references to a married couple having sex and a few light double entendres. Violence includes murders but not much in the way of gore.
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