Book Review for Book Club: French Pastry Murder

Book: French Pastry Murder (A Lucy Stone Mystery book #21) by Leslie Meier

Source: Library

Rating: 1 star (Did Not Finish)

Review:

Wow, this was one downer of a book, all the characters did was complain nonstop about any and everything and some of the scene had a bit of a racist undertone which didn't sit too well with me. I just couldn't finish reading this. It was anything but a fun cozy mystery, it felt as if the author was pushing this anti-French/anti-Paris propaganda instead of providing an interesting mystery.

French Pastry Murder follows Lucy Stone and her three friends, Rachel Goodman, Pam Stillings and Sue Finch and their husbands on a trip to Paris. Lucy and her friends had been surprised with the trip for all the good charitable deeds that they do.

However, instead of the eight of them enjoying their luxury trip, they constantly kept complaining and being all anti-everything. It's bad enough the story opens with Lucy's daughter complaining about living in Paris. Nothing pleased any of these characters, they remind me of the stereotypical American tourist who travels to other countries and are not happy with what they see or experience and constantly compares everything to the U.S.

The trip also included cooking lessons for the group which of course brought out the worst in some of the characters. While going shopping with Chef Larry Bruneau, the group witness the chef being attacked. After the group was leaving another cooking lesson, Lucy realized she forgot her umbrella and returned to get it when she found Chef Larry, he was lying on the floor in a pool of blood.

By then I was already bored with this lackluster story and decided to bow out of this extremely negative book. I didn't care for any of the characters, they were shallow, arrogant, self-centered and ignorant.

This was not a good book club pick, I'm glad I didn't vote for it.