To Die in Provence

Commander Michel Danton, descendant of bickering restaurateurs and the detective-hero of Seventh Avenue author Bogner's welcome return to fiction after a long hiatus, resides in a Provence that Peter Mayle would have trouble recognizing. Amid the well-documented bucolic splendor and pastis, there are laptops and lattes as well as a serial killer on the loose. It falls to Danton--newly broken up with his crime reporter girlfriend and under departmental suspension--to nose out the killer, who has just murdered two Americans in particularly grisly fashion. The villain is identified early to the reader as Boy, a native Oklahoman and former child porn star who's left a trail of misery wherever he's lived. Helping the forces of evil is Boy's girlfriend, dumb, vulnerable Maddie Gold, daughter of an entertainment mogul. Among the novel's standout strengths are a richly detailed setting, psychologically accurate character portrayals and an attractive and engaging hero--and there's enough stomach-churning carnage to satisfy even the most sanguinary tastes. True, whenever Maddie talks, Yogi Berra might advise readers to put blinders on their ears, but the other female--Danton's hot-tempered American love interest--makes up for it. Agent, Susan Crawford; editor, Natalia Aponte. (Sept.) FYI: Before he turned his hand to writing fiction, in the 1960s, Bogner was editorial manager at Jonathan Cape.