Death and Croissants by Ian Moore

I fancied reading another whodunnit murder mystery so jumped into Death and Croissants, the first installment in the Follet Vally Mysteries series by Ian Moore.

Englishman and early-retiree, Richard Ainsworth is the owner of a chambre d’hôte (B&B to you and me) in the fictional Val de Follet, a quiet corner of the Loire Valley in France. Richard likes a quiet life with no excitement and he mostly tends to his guests by avoiding eye contact and blending into the background. But that all changes when one his older guests goes missing, leaving a bloody handprint on his expensive wallpaper and a broken pair of spectacles. 

Richard is also a film buff and see the likes of IMDb as the works of the devil. He likes nothing better than to sit down and watch some old movies, especially now that his wife has gone off in search of a more exciting life. He's convinced his marriage is over but he's not entirely sure, well, he is but there are no lawyers involved, yet. He also keeps hens for a supply of fresh eggs for breakfasts and he's called them

This is pretty much a cosy mystery so if you like murder mysteries with minimal gore and a convoluted plot, this should keep you guessing all the way. Given the main protagonist is a bumbling Englishman, I kind of applied an image of Richard Briers onto the character and that seemed to fit quite well into the mildly comedic antics involving a bounty hunter, assassins, swingers with a bondage dungeon, the Italian Mafia, a French policeman, a small dog called Passepartout, and three hens called Ava Gardner, Rita Hayworth and Lana Turner.

I quite enjoyed it and will almost certainly read the next installments in the series. 7/10 😀