Gilt Frame

Harvey award winner Kindt (the Mind MGMT series) collaborates with his mother, Margie Kraft Kindt, on this charming cozy whodunit that builds an intricate case around the murder of a Parisian antiques dealer. Amateur sleuths Meredith “Merry” Pearson and her nephew Sam have a knack for stumbling onto new cases. Their latest, the death of Louis Anouilh, has many suspects: assistant Pam Martell, who hides her relationship to the Anouilh family; shady business partner Vautour; Vautour’s beautiful and entitled daughter Louise; the stuttering Aldo Huxley, Louise’s fiancé; and even Amelie, Louis’s missing dog. While the pompous chief inspector, Vaillant, spouts flowery, philosophical allusions to Plato’s Cave and signals his suspicions with his choice of tie pin, he may just be scooped by Merry and Sam’s snooping. The narrative unfolds in a pastiche of familiar genre tropes, calling to mind the adventures of Carl Barks’s Uncle Scrooge stories crossed with Tintin and Murder, She Wrote. Matt’s adroit, painted art cheerfully mixes in evidence and documents, such as maps and diagrams, handwritten police questionnaires, and character histories. It’s topped off with a funny and unexpected final twist worthy of Agatha Christie. The result is a delightful and diverting mystery that will keep readers guessing all the way to the end. (Mar.)