Christmas Myst in Provence

This light, uneven mystery from Deeb (""Murder on the Riviera"") will please Francophiles and rare book aficionados but may disappoint mystery fans. When Marie-Christine ""Chrissy"" de Medici spends the Christmas holiday in southern France with her grandmother and assorted family members, a rare 15th-century illuminated manuscript goes missing, and a relative turns up dead. The novel contains many recognizable mystery cliches, including the ""we're-all-trapped-in-this-country-estate-because-of-the-snowstorm"" device. The main character seems more like a giddy adolescent than a newspaper editor, heiress and successful amateur sleuth--a problem heightened by the novel's bizarre use of Bridget Jones-style narration, with too many exclamation points and too few subject pronouns. (In a total about-face to the immature voice of the protagonist, the mystery is interrupted several times by jarring academic footnotes.) If the plot and characters are tired, the book's saving graces are the author's extensive knowledge of the world of rare books (she heads up the Near East section of the Library of Congress) and her wonderful forays into French Christmas traditions: readers learn about the creche, the burning of the yule log, the three tablecloths at Christmas Eve dinner and other customs. Despite the book's flaws, some readers will enjoy its peek at the lifestyles of the rich and famous in Provence.