Disaster at the Vendome Theater
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4.1 • 74 Ratings
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
Calamity befalls the little Vendome Theater in the tenth installment of the sun- and wine-soaked Provençal Mystery Series.
Provençal Mystery Series #10
Watch the series! Murder in Provence is now on Britbox.
When Jean-Marc Sauvet, successful lawyer and the best friend of Aix-en-Provence’s examining magistrate Antoine Verlaque, accepted a small role in a local theater’s summer production of Marcel Pagnol’s Cigalon, he had no idea that the lead actress would be played by the great Liliane Poncet. But Jean-Marc’s excitement about rubbing elbows with one of France’s legendary film stars is quickly extinguished. The lead actor, Gauthier Lesage, is rude and unenthusiastic, and nobody understands how he got the part. Chaos reigns backstage thanks to the absentminded theater director. And everyone seems to be harboring a secret. When one of the actors goes missing for good, it’s up to the soon-to-be-a-father Verlaque and his police commissioner, Bruno Paulik, to untangle the threads of a mystery that seems to get more complicated every day…
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Set in Aix-en-Provence with detours to Paris, Longworth's pleasing 10th Provençal mystery (after 2021's The Vanishing Museum on the Rue Mistral) finds the largely amateur cast of the Théâtre Vendôme's upcoming production of Marcel Pagnol's Cigalon all atwitter at the thought of working with real professionals like Liliane Poncet, the once great leading lady of French stage and screen, and Liliane's costar, Gauthier Lesage, TV actor and guest on various game shows. Gauthier's arrogance and condescension toward his fellow thespians, however, creates friction. When he's found strangled in the theater's storeroom, chaos breaks out. Examining magistrate Antoine Verlaque and his heavily pregnant wife, Marine Bonnet, investigate. Will the show go on, with the town butcher stepping into the leading role? What secrets are the ragtag band of actors hiding? The more pressing questions for readers are when will Martine give birth, and will it be a boy or a girl? As usual, people and place matter more than the coincidence-filled plot. Packed with luscious descriptions of food and flashes of cultural history, this is a fine way to relax in the company of old friends.
