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Bennett Sisters #7-8
Bennett Sisters Mysteries Volume 7 & 8: featuring Francie Bennett
BLAME IT ON PARIS
When Francie Bennett, 4th in the line of lawyer/sisters, comes under serious allegations of wrongdoing at her law firm, she is mortified to learn she must take a leave of absence. Just a formality, they say, but she is sure this is the end of her reputation and her law career. Will she sit around her apartment and eat cheese, drink wine, and binge Netflix for weeks while hoping it gets worked out?
ZUT ALORS! NON! She is off to Paris on assignment by the mother of a student jailed for serious drug crimes in France. She stays with her sister Merle and her boyfriend, the debonair policier Pascal, in the Marais district while trying to navigate the murky waters of the French criminal system. Is the student an actual European drug kingpin? Or has he been framed by someone? He looks guilty as hell, but first impressions can be confusing, especially inside one of France's worst medieval prisons.
But wait-- a distraction from crime. A law school boyfriend that the flighty Francie kicked to the curb years before has surfaced. Instead of the boring lad she flicked away, Dylan Hardy is now sophisticated and suave-- and speaks perfect French from working in an international law firm. And he's single again, Merle discovers, eager to find her sister a real boyfriend after many rejects over the years.
IT'S SPRINGTIME IN PARIS-- or would be if the rain would ever stop. In between visiting the student in prison, gumshoeing about his University, and witnessing drug stings gone wrong, Francie longs to find blooming cherry trees that make Paris the magical place she imagines it is. Will Dylan's sudden re-appearance in her life be a good thing, or a repeat of her many romantic failures? Will she figure out what is going on with the drug dealer/student? Will she ever find her pink trees of legend?
A BOLT FROM THE BLUE
When Francie Bennett goes back to Paris to help untangle an old woman's estate at first she is confined to escorting the grumpy heir to fancy dinners. Not that she's complaining because... well, PARIS. She's up for more though, and the client turns out to be a a Frenchwoman who hates France she is intrigued to say the least.
When Axelle Fourcier left Paris behind after the student riots of 1968, she vowed never to go back. She despises Paris, for reasons she won't relate. She made a life for herself in America as a professor. But now a beloved aunt, age 104, has died and left her an inheritance to be shared with a cousin she never met. A fabulous Belle Époque apartment in Paris filled with pop art from the '50s and '60s is just the start of Axelle's discoveries in Paris. Wrangling with her slick cousin for the proceeds is distasteful but oh so French.
But the road to the inheritance is more than rough. The fancy Parisian apartment is broken into, a friend is murdered, and Axelle's fears that the French state is once again conspiring against her seem very plausible.
For Francie her simple role of companion to Axelle becomes much more as she tries to deal with her cranky client, her own new relationship with Dylan Hardy, plus his nine-year-old daughter. As the estate problems spin out of control they decamp to the Dordogne for help from sister Merle. Intrigue, romance, Paris and the Dordogne, and a soupçon of murder, wrapped in the legal and art world of France bring more than a few 'Bolts from the Blue' to the Bennett Sisters.
When Francie Bennett, 4th in the line of lawyer/sisters, comes under serious allegations of wrongdoing at her law firm, she is mortified to learn she must take a leave of absence. Just a formality, they say, but she is sure this is the end of her reputation and her law career. Will she sit around her apartment and eat cheese, drink wine, and binge Netflix for weeks while hoping it gets worked out?
ZUT ALORS! NON! She is off to Paris on assignment by the mother of a student jailed for serious drug crimes in France. She stays with her sister Merle and her boyfriend, the debonair policier Pascal, in the Marais district while trying to navigate the murky waters of the French criminal system. Is the student an actual European drug kingpin? Or has he been framed by someone? He looks guilty as hell, but first impressions can be confusing, especially inside one of France's worst medieval prisons.
But wait-- a distraction from crime. A law school boyfriend that the flighty Francie kicked to the curb years before has surfaced. Instead of the boring lad she flicked away, Dylan Hardy is now sophisticated and suave-- and speaks perfect French from working in an international law firm. And he's single again, Merle discovers, eager to find her sister a real boyfriend after many rejects over the years.
IT'S SPRINGTIME IN PARIS-- or would be if the rain would ever stop. In between visiting the student in prison, gumshoeing about his University, and witnessing drug stings gone wrong, Francie longs to find blooming cherry trees that make Paris the magical place she imagines it is. Will Dylan's sudden re-appearance in her life be a good thing, or a repeat of her many romantic failures? Will she figure out what is going on with the drug dealer/student? Will she ever find her pink trees of legend?
A BOLT FROM THE BLUE
When Francie Bennett goes back to Paris to help untangle an old woman's estate at first she is confined to escorting the grumpy heir to fancy dinners. Not that she's complaining because... well, PARIS. She's up for more though, and the client turns out to be a a Frenchwoman who hates France she is intrigued to say the least.
When Axelle Fourcier left Paris behind after the student riots of 1968, she vowed never to go back. She despises Paris, for reasons she won't relate. She made a life for herself in America as a professor. But now a beloved aunt, age 104, has died and left her an inheritance to be shared with a cousin she never met. A fabulous Belle Époque apartment in Paris filled with pop art from the '50s and '60s is just the start of Axelle's discoveries in Paris. Wrangling with her slick cousin for the proceeds is distasteful but oh so French.
But the road to the inheritance is more than rough. The fancy Parisian apartment is broken into, a friend is murdered, and Axelle's fears that the French state is once again conspiring against her seem very plausible.
For Francie her simple role of companion to Axelle becomes much more as she tries to deal with her cranky client, her own new relationship with Dylan Hardy, plus his nine-year-old daughter. As the estate problems spin out of control they decamp to the Dordogne for help from sister Merle. Intrigue, romance, Paris and the Dordogne, and a soupçon of murder, wrapped in the legal and art world of France bring more than a few 'Bolts from the Blue' to the Bennett Sisters.
581 pages, Kindle Edition
Published May 21, 2020
375 people are currently reading
178 people want to read
About the author
Lise McClendon
91 books225 followersLise McClendon is a fiction writer living in the Rocky Mountains of Montana. She has been a film reviewer, a film maker, a journalism professor, and a PR flack. Since her first novel, The Bluejay Shaman, in 1994, she has served on the national board of Mystery Writers of America and the International Association of Crime Writers/North America, as well as on faculty of the Jackson Hole Writers Conference where each year she critiques, speaks, and learns from writers new and old.
Check out the Lise McClendon Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/LiseMcClendon
Lise McClendon also writes as Rory Tate in the 2011 thriller, JUMP CUT. Her new novel by Rory Tate is PLAN X, available now. Read her latest novel, Château des Corbeaux, 17th in the Bennett Sisters mystery series that began with Blackbird Fly.
Check out the Lise McClendon Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/LiseMcClendon
Lise McClendon also writes as Rory Tate in the 2011 thriller, JUMP CUT. Her new novel by Rory Tate is PLAN X, available now. Read her latest novel, Château des Corbeaux, 17th in the Bennett Sisters mystery series that began with Blackbird Fly.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
June 18, 2022
Ready for a trip to France?
What a wonderful story of a lawyer reaching middle age with only one thing to count as a life accomplishment. She's the managing partner, a very busy and rather thankless job with a nice pay increase, but not fulfilling. Then one day she receives very unexpected news. Her ex husband has a son who's incarcerated in a French prison accused on drug related charges.
Normally taking two or three weeks off to go to France would be out if the question, even though her sister is living in France with her new husband, but when an annoying junior attorney accuses her of sexual harassment, she must take a leave of absence until the firm can investigate the claim.
Not a great way to have time on your hands, but the idea of trying to help the son of her now deceased ex, seems to have come at exactly the right time.
A pleasurable read from start to finish that will keep you flipping pages as fast as you can! Enjoy.
What a wonderful story of a lawyer reaching middle age with only one thing to count as a life accomplishment. She's the managing partner, a very busy and rather thankless job with a nice pay increase, but not fulfilling. Then one day she receives very unexpected news. Her ex husband has a son who's incarcerated in a French prison accused on drug related charges.
Normally taking two or three weeks off to go to France would be out if the question, even though her sister is living in France with her new husband, but when an annoying junior attorney accuses her of sexual harassment, she must take a leave of absence until the firm can investigate the claim.
Not a great way to have time on your hands, but the idea of trying to help the son of her now deceased ex, seems to have come at exactly the right time.
A pleasurable read from start to finish that will keep you flipping pages as fast as you can! Enjoy.
April 18, 2023
Interesting travel mystery
I enjoyed these two books, two adventures in Paris. A second chance with an old boyfriend, he had never gotten over her dumping him in college. But now over a dozen years later, both divorced, the spark is still there. Can she admit the reasons they broke up had more to do with her than him?
Another trip to Paris planned, work plus a romantic get away. Too bad things are not working out the way they planned. A woman dies at 104 years old, leaving a very messy estate to share between to cousins who have never met. The apartment she lived in was grand, if only she had kept it up. But the art work hidden there for so many years is remarkable, plus all the books, furniture and china, much to fight over. Then things really start happening, and not good things. Can they figure it all out?
I enjoyed these two books, two adventures in Paris. A second chance with an old boyfriend, he had never gotten over her dumping him in college. But now over a dozen years later, both divorced, the spark is still there. Can she admit the reasons they broke up had more to do with her than him?
Another trip to Paris planned, work plus a romantic get away. Too bad things are not working out the way they planned. A woman dies at 104 years old, leaving a very messy estate to share between to cousins who have never met. The apartment she lived in was grand, if only she had kept it up. But the art work hidden there for so many years is remarkable, plus all the books, furniture and china, much to fight over. Then things really start happening, and not good things. Can they figure it all out?
August 9, 2022
i enjoy the quirkiness. "Bennett Sisters Mysteries boxset series". in KU if you have that service. i got it for free. out May 21, 2020. women's detective fiction. women's divorce fiction. women's crime fiction. i am thinking i have read something from Lise before?? i gotta see. i am wondering why the box set was 7 & 8 ... makes me wonder??
December 14, 2021
Very enjoyable mysteries st in France
Well written with characters facing personal issues who become embroiled in mysterious circumstances. From Paris, France to rural French countryside these are stories to be savored.
Well written with characters facing personal issues who become embroiled in mysterious circumstances. From Paris, France to rural French countryside these are stories to be savored.
July 3, 2022
love the Bennett Sister series
I feel like I know these characters. These books are always interesting and this one was no different. I loved how Dylan came back into her life. Loved the mystery and all the characters.
I feel like I know these characters. These books are always interesting and this one was no different. I loved how Dylan came back into her life. Loved the mystery and all the characters.
July 27, 2022
Fabulous stories
Both of these books are very well written with interesting characters. The scenes are well described as well as the characters. The plot moved along well in each book.
Both of these books are very well written with interesting characters. The scenes are well described as well as the characters. The plot moved along well in each book.
June 14, 2022
Very good. Enough activity and character development. Not enough humor for me but at least some in the form of humorous situations.
August 12, 2022
satisfying read
Good continuation of the series enjoyed seeing more from Francie and what she is up to.
Full of adventure and mayhem.
Good continuation of the series enjoyed seeing more from Francie and what she is up to.
Full of adventure and mayhem.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews