Murder Visits a French Village

In Shea’s uneven third French Village mystery (after 2018’s Dressed for Death in Burgundy), New Yorker Ariel Shepard is reeling from her husband’s sudden death and his lawyer’s revelation that he purchased a dilapidated 19th-century French chateau in Noyers-sur-Serein as a surprise for her. Coping with eccentric workmen there, mounting maintenance problems, and bat and rat challenges, she’s happy to make new friends: British mystery writer Pippa Hathaway and U.S. expatriate Katherine Goff, as well as historian Christiane Breton, who begins to delve into the chateau’s past. Christiane dies in what appears to be a fall at the chateau, but the death looks suspicious, and Pippa, Katherine, and Ariel vow to find out more despite police hostility to meddling amateurs and danger to Christiane’s husband. Alert readers will quickly cotton on to the perpetrator and may become a little impatient with the oblivious Ariel. However, the colorful locals, as well as the rich culinary and cultural ambiance, show promise. Hopefully, Shea will do better next time. Agent: Christine Hogrebe, Jane Rotrosen Agency. (Mar.)