Full Disclosure: Goodreads Giveaway Winner
They say you can't judge a book by its cover.... and I've never liked the truth of that adage because there are just SO MANY books whose covers have caught my eye either because of gorgeous colours, or intriguing artwork, only to read the description to find that the contents are just not up my alley because there are just some genres I don't want to read. I love history, but have no desire to read a glorification of the Confederate traitors; and I really don't like books that are written as romance first. I was raised on Nancy Drew, The Hardy Boys, and progressed to Agatha Christie & Ellery Queen - so mystery is my thing, and relationships germane to the story, romantic or otherwise, fine - but when the whole book revolves around romance, or lust disguised as romance, no thank you. What's this got to do with An Island of Suspects? The cover art is beautiful and intriguing, between the sunset backdrop to an outhouse, to the cheerful pink and white stripes. From this cover, one could be forgiven to thinking it was a romance, or even a cozy mystery... but no.
In An Island of Suspects, Commissaire Dupin has his morning swim interrupted by a dead body (luckily, not discovered by him). The body in question, that of Patric Provost belongs to an entitled control freak who in life was legitimately disliked, if not downright hated by most on his small island off the Coast of France. So the Commissaire and his band of Inspectors take off for this island paradise that has hosted artists (Monet, & Matisse), and the famed Sarah Bernhardt. Beauty lies around every twist and turn in the coast and the island's rough road, as does treachery and intrigue (apparently, in my vocab, intrigue is having a moment). As is common in such a small, remote(ish) community, relationships weave a complicated, incestuous (not literally) web: Provost's ex-wife's cousin is also the mayor; everyone belongs to myriad civic and social groups, and serves on committees creating more connections (I've lived on a small, remote, military base - this part of the novel was really familiar to me).
A couple of things I really enjoyed about this book are that although not the first book in this series, that did not prevent full immersion in this world; Bannalec enables entry without a formulaic 'previously on' introduction; AND that although my long ago high school French helped with the sprinkling of phrases in the book, these and the Breton phrases within are always explained within the text (without being condescending).
Unfortunately, Libby only carries one other title in this series, and no audiobooks (which is how I often use a library), so I will have to look elsewhere to catch up on Commissaire Provost's earlier adventures.