An Island of Suspects: A Brittany Mystery

The sturdy 10th installment in Bannalec’s series featuring food-obsessed French detective Georges Dupin (after Death of a Master Chef) sets a locked-room mystery on an island off the Brittany coast. A body found on a navigation buoy is quickly identified as that of Patric Prevost, the wealthiest and most disagreeable resident of Belle-Île, famed for its needlelike rock formations that inspired Claude Monet. Dupin’s initial questioning reveals Prevost to have been deeply unloved and alienated from others by his fortune. As Dupin digs further, the responses by Prevost’s neighbors, tenants, and the island’s mayor frustrate him. When Prevost’s estate is totaled at $20 million, and it emerges that much of it is willed to the island’s improvement, there’s plenty of motive, but no obvious suspect. Then an islander is kidnapped, and Prevost’s ex-wife is found strangled to death after making a frantic phone call for help. The mystery’s satisfying solution ties neatly into the series’s focus on food. While the pacing sometimes drags, with sidebars about Breton culture slowing the action, fans will enjoy Dupin’s characteristically wry observations. It’s a satisfying enough series entry. (Feb.)