Murder Chez Proust

In her first foray into murder, published last year in France, Monbrun sets up a cozy-like bland background from which she launches some pointed barbs at the ambitions of literary scholars. Unscrupulous Proustian Adeline Bertrand-Verdon has her plans for greatness ended by a fatal blow to the head during her late-night visit to the real-life home of Remembrance of Things Past's Aunt Leonie. A woman who inspired both devotion and loathing, Bertrand-Verdon leaves behind a gaggle of suspects--most of whom, much to the annoyance of police inspector Jean-Pierre Foucheroux and detective Leila Djemani, are largely concerned with protecting their reputations. Meanwhile, relentlessly insecure graduate student Gisele Dambert, whose tendency to lose things long ago extended to her common sense, is tracking down the misplaced Proust notebooks that could make her reputation--and destroy others'. Throughout, Monbrun is most effective when targeting academic self-promotion or exploring Aunt Leonie's drab little house as literary shrine (an object less interesting in reality than in in art--or recollection). Not quite so convincing are attempts at deeper meaning, e.g., Foucheroux's model of reading, and the cobbling of same to a routine mystery. (Sept.)