Popular and busy author Daryl Wood Gerber has brought out another book to begin her French Bistro Mystery series. Already on the loose are the Cookbook Nook series and, writing as Avery Ames, the Cheese Shop series. Moving between series is a good way for an author to keep her favourite characters fresh and to avoid them being involved in murders more than once a year. We do have to feel sorry for these amateur sleuths sometimes; they're just trying to make a living, running a bistro in the Napa Valley, and old friends turn up unexpectedly deceased on the premises.

A DEADLY ÉCLAIR introduces Mimi Rousseau, who had the misfortune to marry a man who loved his mountaineering so much that he bought all his gear and trips on his credit card... which rebounded on his unsuspecting widow after he died in an accident. Now she's working to pay off the debt, opening a bistro and adhering to top standards to entice the best custom. A society wedding is to be held at the nearby inn and Mimi is catering. But her mentor Bryan Baker is killed overnight at her premises and an éclair is found by his body -- and a call was made to him from Mimi's phone that she doesn't know about, framing her.

As we'd expect, a location like this provides sumptuous recipes on the fly, like split pea and smoked ham artisan soup. Mimi does spend rather a lot of time dining, cooking and taste testing for her chef Camille Chabot. This means that by and large, the suspects have to come to her at the restaurant and neighbouring inn, rather than having her trailing around town looking for those who might have an involvement. Several recipes are written out at the end, from pastries to chicken, plus the French onion soup whose aroma suffuses certain chapters.

If you collect food-themed mysteries you'll probably want to add this one to your shelf. If you normally prefer something more dramatic and suspenseful, well, everyone needs to slow down and refuel now and again, so you could start with A DEADLY ÉCLAIR and see where it leads you. Daryl Wood Gerber has created an interesting cast and well- fleshed out background, so I'm sure we'll be seeing more of Mimi.

Book Summary

It’s always been Mimi Rousseau’s dream to open her own bistro, but it seems beyond her grasp since she’s been chased back home to Nouvelle Vie in Napa Valley by her late husband’s tremendous debt. Until her best friend Jorianne James introduces her to entrepreneur Bryan Baker who invests in promising prospects. Now, working the bistro and inn until she’s able to pay it off and call it her own, Mimi is throwing the inn’s first wedding ever. The wedding will be the talk of the town, as famous talk show host Angelica Edmonton, daughter of Bryan’s half- brother, Edison, has chosen the inn as her perfect venue. Anxious, Mimi is sure things are going to turn south, especially when Edison gets drunk and rowdy at the out-of- towners’ dinner, but by the evening, things begin to look up again. That is until six AM rolls around, and Bryan is found dead at the bistro with an éclair stuffed in his mouth. And the fingers point at Mimi, whose entire loan is forgiven in Bryan’s will. Now it’s up to Mimi to clear her name and get to the bottom of things before the killer turns up the heat again in A Deadly Éclair, the scrumptious series debut by Agatha Award-winning author Daryl Wood Gerber.