Cartoon of the Day: Dogs

MYSTERIES SET IN FRANCE: La Fête Nationale aka Bastille Day

Celebrate La Fête Nationale aka Bastille Day with the hot off the presses issue of Mystery Readers Journal: Mysteries Set in France (Volume 42:2)! Buy this issue.

If you're a subscriber you will receive your issue shortly. Contributors will receive their issues later this week. Thanks to everyone for supporting Mystery Readers Journal for over 42 years.

 

MYSTERIES SET IN FRANCE: MYSTERY READERS JOURNAL (42:2)

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ARTICLES

• Joseph Rouletabille: Reporter-Detective by Ashley Bowden

AUTHOR! AUTHOR!

• Vive la différence! by Cathy Ace
• From Marseille to Edisto Island by Paul A. Barra
• We’ll Always Have Paris by Janet Dawson
• From Somewhere in France by Michele Drier
• A Historian and Novelist in France by Ann Elwood
• Delicious Chapters by Yves Fey
  
• What Foolish Dreams May Come by Alan Gordon
• The Eat, Drink, and Be Merry Research Tour: Setting a Book in France by Wendy Hornsby
• It’s Never Too Late to Be a Midlife Badass by Lauren Johnson
• I’d Kill to Live in Paris by Eva Jurczyk
• The Mystery of the Misplaced Mona Lisa by Ron Katz
• Victor & Me in Paris by Janice MacDonald
• It’s All About the Setting by Adrian Magson
• Magdalene Duchateau: A Frenchwoman Abroad in the English Mystery by G.M. Malliet
• Murder at Villa Légère: A Pho of Murder, Diamonds, and a Secret Worth Killing For by C. L. Malone
• Why France? by Peter May
• France Is a Drug—The Bennett Sisters Can’t Be Wrong by Lise McClendon
• Liberty and Death in the French Maritime Alps by Larry Mild
• My France by Sharan Newman
• The Reality Behind the Fantasy of “French Country Murders” by Katie Penryn
• Corsica: Where Landscape Creates Secrets by Neil S. Plakcy
• Mysterious (and Delicious) Paris by Danielle Postel-Vinay
• Paris Didn’t Let Me Leave, So I Wrote a Murder Instead by Ileana Muñoz Renfroe
• Why Not France? by Susan C. Shea
• Mysterious Paris by Rob Swigart
• So Softly Threads the Night by Bob Van Laerhoven
• The Mystery of Paris by Charles Todd
• I Was a Free Man in Paris by C.J. Verburg
• We’ll Always Have Paris by Nancy Warren
• Dreaming of Paris by Victoria Zackheim
• Saint-Paul-de-Vence: Toujours Cool, Just Add Murder by Elizabeth Zelvin
• On Monaco and Mystery by Ally Zetterberg

COLUMNS

• Mystery in Retrospect: Reviews 
• Children’s Hour: Mysteries Set in France by Gay Toltl Kinman
• Meurtres en … France by Kate Derie
• Spiral (Engrenages): France’s Compulsive Masterpiece of Crime, Corruption, and Character by Pattie Tierney
• Jean Gabin—the Greatest Maigret by Jim Doherty
• True Crime France by Cathy Pickens
• From the Editor’s Desk by Janet Rudolph

THE MARLOW MURDER CLUB: Season 3 News

Mark your calendars! The Marlow Murder Club returns to MASTERPIECE Mystery! for Season 3 on Sunday, Sept. 6, 2026, on MASTERPIECE on PBS. In Season 3, Judith Potts (Samantha Bond), Suzie Harris (Jo Martin), Becks Starling (Cara Horgan), and DI Tanika Malik (Natalie Dew) all return to solve a string of high-profile murders including that of the mayor and a popular chef. Seasons 1 & 2 of the series are available to stream via PBS and PBS MASTERPIECE on Prime Video.

I've watched the first two episodes, and they're terrific. I love this series, and the first two episodes (one story) involve a poison garden. Well, that's right up my alley. As many of you know I have a great garden, divided into individual patches. Although I used to have a designated poison garden, I now have only some poisonous plants incorporated into my other garden plots.  Still, I loved seeing a dedicated poison garden, replete with signage. So beautiful--and deadly. And, not a secret, but fun was the guest appearance of Peter Davidson. Such fun! Everything about The Marlow Murder Club appeals to me--the acting, the setting, the house, the river, the gardens. Mark your calendar for September 6!

Season 3: Returning to solve more complex and intriguing murders in Marlow are meticulous crossword-setter Judith Potts (Samantha Bond), pillar of the community and vicar’s wife Becks Starling (Cara Horgan), and no-nonsense dog walker Suzie Harris (Jo Martin). Working tirelessly alongside DI Tanika Malik (Natalie Dew) and her police team, our crime-solving trio put their unconventional methods into practice to catch the killers in six new episodes. There will be three two-part stories.

 

Cartoon of the Day: Book Launch

 

The Chelsea Detective News

Just watched the first two episodes of Season 4 in advance, and they are really good. Great acting, good plots, and terrific Chelsea-centric ambiance. Hope you like the season. I only wish there were more than 4 episodes.

The Chelsea Detective premieres Monday, August 3 on Acorn TV

Season 4 sees DI Max Arnold (Adrian Scarborough, Falling, Killing Eve, 1917) and DS Layla Walsh (Vanessa Emme, Dublin Murders, Three Families) return to tackle new murder cases within the elite world of Chelsea. The detective duo, together with their team, delve once more into the darker side of Chelsea that lurks beneath its glossy façade. 

LIBRARY POSTER OF THE WEEK