If the title Mastering the Art of French Murder conjures up memories of another book with a similar title, it should! Julia Child is a character in this first An American in Paris Mystery (another familiar title) by Colleen Cambridge. It's 1950. Paris is recovering from the Occupation. Tabitha has moved there to help care for her grandfather and uncle. She is not a good cook and is taking lessons from a neighbor, a young Julia Child! Julia and her husband love to have parties and after one of them, a woman is found dead, stabbed. The weapon is next to the body, and it is one of Julia's knives. Then, Tabitha's name and contact information are found in a pocket. Inspector Merveille thinks the case is a slam dunk, but (of course) it's not! A rather nice start to the series. :-)

In one of those odd moments of timing, Canadian Reader and I ended up finding and ordering the same book: Murder Next Door, the first in the Jim and Ginger Cozy Mystery series by Arthur Pearce. When Jim Butterfield was fired, er, let go, from his job at the library, he opted to move to Oceanview Cove. It's where his late wife grew up, and she inherited her childhood home. They'd planned to move there in retirement, but now it was just Jim. Almost as soon as he meets his neighbors one of them is murdered and the cat that was living there moves in with Jim. There is something unique about this cat, seems some humans can hear him talking in real words. Turns out one of them is Jim. Since he is new to town, and could have a motive (the neighbor once dated Jim's wife in high school), Jim is considered a primary suspect. Jim and Ginger team up to find the real murderer. Quite the unlikely and fun team!

Reading Hermit With Dog