cover image Death in Provence

Death in Provence

Serena Kent. Harper, $26.99 (352p) ISBN 978-0-06-286985-2

Peter Mayle fans will enjoy this first novel and series opener from the pseudonymous Kent, an English husband-and-wife writing team. Penelope Kite, a divorcée and former assistant to a Home Office medical examiner, decides on impulse to buy a run-down farmhouse in St. Merlot, high in the hills of Provence’s Luberon Valley. Penelope soon gets an expatriate’s crash course in the history of St. Merlot, family rivalries, and occasionally inscrutable French customs. When the village drunkard, who greets her with a tirade claiming ownership of her house, winds up dead in her swimming pool, Penelope and the local police plunge into parallel investigations. Her experience in forensics from her Home Office job comes in handy. The cast of characters includes agreeable, occasionally shrewd Provençal natives, a forceful English best friend, and an effortlessly chic Parisian real estate agent. Kent provides loving descriptions of food, wine, and weather, and though the resolution is telegraphed a bit, this series is off to an amiable start. [em]Agent: Stephanie Cabot, Gernert Co. (Feb.) [/em]