Adele and Co.

The annual Parisian idyll of nine wealthy friends from Britain and the Continent is disrupted when a thief laces their liquor and makes off with the ladies' jewels. It's soon apparent that the culprit is Casca de Palk, the only Parisian among them, but having little confidence in the French police, the friends resolve to find the jewels on their own. However, ""professional'' thieves, outraged by Casca's beginner's luck, are determined to snatch the booty themselves, and in a rollicking car chase from Paris to the Pyrennees, the friends are in breakneck competition with a distasteful ``pro'' they know only as ``Auntie Emma.'' Less than adequate provisions and accommodations, perils of the autoroute (in this turn-of-the century thriller) and other, more hair-raising, inconveniences occasion the friends' hilarious disparagement, but where amateur thieves are imperiled, amateur sleuths may win outespecially those with the wit and the wherewithal. This latest in the series that includes Berry & Co. and Jonah & Co. also contains that distinctively British blend of dry wit, slapstick and unexpected plot twists that won their author, now deceased, a loyal following at home. February 14