The Grave Gourmet

Capucine Culinary Mysteries #1

by Alexander Campion

From the Champs-Élysées to the twinkling banks of la Seine, chic Parisian policewoman Capucine LeTellier plunges into a uniquely Parisian affair of gastronomic delights and bureaucratic intrigue to close a case that could make her career-or kill it…

After dining on such delicacies as oyster sorbet and avocado soufflé, Jean-Louis Delage, président of automotive giant Renault, has been found dead in the freezer of Le Diapason, a three-star restaurant owned by Chef Jean-Basille Labrousse, a renowned restaurateur extraordinaire.

Capucine is uniquely suited to the case, as her husband Alexandre is a food critic well-connected to the culinary world. In between sharing sumptuous meals and fine wine with Alexandre at Paris’ finest eateries, Capucine struggles to win the respect of her new squad of detectives and crack both the case and the guarded secrets of the restaurant staff.

Genres: Mystery, Fiction, Cozy Mystery, Ebooks, Cozy, France, Food

320 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 2010

About the author

Alexander Campion started out as a true New Yorker, graduating from Columbia and migrating downtown to Wall Street. Early on, someone, a little apologetically, proposed he spend six months maximum in Paris helping out with a new venture his firm had just acquired. He stayed thirty five years, eventually becoming a restaurant critic and progressing inevitably to gastronomic thrillers.

Reviews

[Christine · Rating 1 out of 5]

Thankfully I didn't pay for this.

To Male Mystery Writers in General,

Re: Female Characters and Bras


While some women may chose to go bra-less (and in many cases, this is a choice of lifestyle), those who are well endowed usually need one for comfort reasons. Seriously. Secondly, any woman who uses her bra-less state to get a job promotion is not going to be taken seriously by a large variety of readers. Many readers are going to see as an attack on women (because she doesn't get promoted by skill) or as an nod that women only get promoted because of boobs of considerable size.

Furthermore, to endear your heroine with boobs of considerable size to readers of the female gender, it helps if the other women in the book aren't degraded as jealous old cows or butch lesbians cliches with bad haircuts.

And interesting, how the black guy is the aggressive driver.

And seriously, if a woman is harassed by some complete jacka*** touching her, her first thought is not going to be OMG I'm so turned on, then followed by something that basically translates to "she got her feminist on". But really she thinks it is hot, she just has to be a feminist so the old cows don't yell at her.

Thank you,

From a woman who wears a bra and actually does her job

[Jessica · Rating 1 out of 5]

I liked the idea, but the execution? Ugh!

The first, most important thing Campion has to say about Capucine is that she's gorgeous and knows it. She first appears in chapter one in "straightening, drawing in her tummy, rounding out her buttocks, lifting her breasts against her designer silk blouse." By the second chapter, she is asking her superior for a job transfer, still wearing designer clothes, but having decided that "omitting a bra was essential to the tough guy look." For some reason, Campion feels the need to mention her braless state twice within three pages. Am I supposed to like this woman? I'm honestly not sure.

And then there is the prose. French words are liberally scattered throughout the text, just to remind everyone that this is supposed to be France. They're italicized, to remind us that they're foreign (Yes, I know this is traditional, but it's also distracting, especially when it's happening several times a page).

Then there are the metaphors. Oh the metaphors.

In the first chapter, Capucine's "feeling of well-being popped like a soap bubble, drenching her in cold oily dampness." A few pages later, there is Capucine "releasing an insuppressible smile to flutter across the room like a butterfly."

I hope someone opened a window for the poor thing.

Having made it to all of page eleven, I flipped to the end, only to find someone saying, "My sense is she's cauterizing her spirit."

This may well replace "I left my fear in the dimensional tunnel" as a personal favorite non-phrase(1), but I'm still not finishing the book.

__
(1) From Andromeda, about the time I realized it had stopped being the show I loved. Still, I've gotten a lot of amusement out of that phrase. That's something.

Note: Originally written as part of a multi-book review over at my blog, Bookwyrme's Lair

[Amy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not sure why I keep trying with mysteries. They're really not my thing, at best palate cleansers between other books. I do however love anything set in a great city like Paris. I approached this one with modest expectations.

And gave up. This book can't seem to figure out what it is--a cosy about lovely meals in Paris, or a glimpse of how hard-edged Parisian "flics" are, or an international spy story. The characters behave in inexplicable ways. Why is the hunky bad-boy cop physically roughing up security guards from the minute he walks up to them--why didn't he just ask them questions? Was there some reason to expect them to lie to the police? Who is this suddenly appearing contact of Capucine's in the DGSE--sure he's a cousin, but why do the two of them giggle at each other so much? Oh yeah, and why wait 15 pages to explain what the DGSE is?

Capucine could have been a fun character to follow, but she's too immature for me to care about. Despite her vaguely feminist grumbles to herself, she gets her big break into the criminal division by making sure the big boss can tell she's not wearing a bra with her expensive suit (which, by the way, is just odd from a getting-dressed-for-work point of view). She's attracted to the cop whose case she takes over, and who stays around to "mentor" her, which means he appears at random intervals and leers at her. Her much older, know-it-all husband is annoying too, but I don't want her to dump him just for a younger know-it-all cop.

This felt a bit rough, like it needed another scrub and polish, but the editors were out to lunch. Sometimes I really needed the back stories about the characters' relationships (the husband, the cousin). I for sure needed more clear explanations about French criminal procedure. If the book originally had been written in French, for French readers, I would let it go (was it?). But if the target audience is more familiar with Anglo-American law, then many readers are likely to be curious why a judge examines police evidence *before* a prosecutor gets the case (or does "juge" not mean "judge"?). "Grave Gourmet" tries to explain this through the characters' discussions, but that just made for clunky dialogue. It needed a four-sentence paragraph that works like an aside. That simple--where were the editors?

And don't get me started on why Capucine and her cohorts keep threatening to send witnesses to jail, for like 20 years, even though the witnesses are actually cooperating. French law couldn't possibly allow the police to arrest everyone for no reason, so why not be more clear to the reader that they're bluffing? I wouldn't mind knowing the cops are sneaky; I do mind wondering if they're dim.

For what it's worth, the descriptions of food and wine were absolutely lovely.

Maybe the first of a series always has some kinks, and the second Capucine book works them out. Meanwhile, for mysteries set in modern Paris, Cara Black's books are still a better place to start.

[Kimberly · Rating 2 out of 5]

Firstly, the author wants you to know that women have breasts. He'll remind you of that throughout the book.

Secondly, the author is male. You'll know this from the first chapter when our main character, Capucine, mused that she was happy she didn't wear a bra to a job interview. Capucine is young and hot, by the way. She starts out as a bored white-collar investigator who yearns for a grittier job and a chance to use her gun. She gets her shot when a man is found dead inside a restaurant. Since Capucine is married to a man who knows restaurants, she is deemed a good fit for the case.

Thirdly, our author's first name is Alexander and he used to be a restaurant critic, and the name of our breasted protagonist's round, sage, much-older food critic husband is named Alexandre. If she wasn't married to Alexandre, Capucine wouldn't have been assigned this case. Bonjour, Gary-Stu! Spoiler: Alexandre even gets to narrate the epilogue for us, telling us what happened to the major players. c Capucine is away, training for the job she was promoted into.

Fourthly, this book makes me never want French food again. Mr. Campion took great pleasure in reducing some delicious-sounding dishes down to their barbaric ingredients and vile preparation.

Fifthly(?), what was UP with Capucine's male cousin and all of his creepster sexual advances?

And sixthly, hello police brutality! In one scene our young, hot protagonist (who has breasts, btw) watches a suspect get beaten over the head with a hardcover lawyer directory until he bleeds from the ears and passes out.

This was a Free Friday Nook book for me, and from the cover and description I thought it would be your run-of-the-mill cozy mystery, where the crime and perps are contained to the restaurant world. Instead, there's international espionage and discussion of the auto industry. Which wasn't hard to follow, but it was a swerve from what I expected.

I rated it two stars because I didn't pay for it. It would have been one star had I paid any more than $1.99.

Disclaimer: I have breasts, and I wore a bra while reading this book.

[Una Tiers · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was necessary for me to start this book twice before I saw the problem in the first few pages. The author forces four or five words where one would be fine. It is a book best read on a kindle because either the author has a stellar vocabulary or mine is short a few cards. Many of the terms are in French and I soon tired of looking up the terms.
The pace is excruciatingly slow with an inexperienced, if beautiful police lieutenant. She is one dimensional, beautiful. The set up and resolution were overly done.

[Lori · Rating 4 out of 5]

This story begins with the discovery of a body in the walk-in cooler of one of Paris' revered three star restaurants. The main character is a young policewoman who is married to a restaurant critic. The characters are well-developed and the descriptions of Paris (and its food) are fun. I'm looking forward to future mysteries in this series.

[Ms.pegasus · Rating 4 out of 5]

THE GRAVE GOURMET by Alexander Campion has created in Capucine an unlikely novice crime detective. Nurtured in the financial crimes division, she is anxious to partake of “real” police work, as an escape from her well-bred tastefully comfortable life. Her cousin is a government insider, and her husband is a well-know restaurant critic. The combination of moxie and elegance is a bit reminiscent of Audrey Hepburn – alternating between naïve charm, feminine wiles, and pit bull doggedness. In other words, Capucine is delightfully entertaining if one can get beyond so fanciful a conception.

The plot is convoluted and though entertaining, not riveting. We don't really come to care much in the end about who murdered the president of the Renault company once it has been established he did not die of food poisoning at Jean-Basile Labrousse's three star Parisian restaurant. The real attraction is the writing – elaborately arch and mocking. Capucine carefully ingratiates herself with the sommelier, Gregoire Rolland in order to extract information: “...once the sluice gates were opened an unstoppable flow of disdain rippled down the channel.” At one point, after hearing Capucine's report, her boss, Tallon, “relaxed slightly, making a noise that sounded like the executive summary of a contented Labrador stretching out in front of a fireplace.”

The most entertaining scenes are of the restaurant in action. Achille, a junior cook tries to pass off a less than perfectly prepared plate of sweetbreads, chestnuts and black truffles. The scene takes up an entire chapter, and is among the most vibrant in the book. Capucine crashes a staff meal in order to catch the staff in a mood more conducive to gossip. The assortment of characters are suddenly exposed in a way that would have been impossible in a conventional police interview.

Impossible dishes are casual backdrops to Capucine's flirtatious conversations with her husband, Alexandre the food critic. There is a stylish intimacy as the level-headed husband playfully works at shifting his spouse's overly intense moods. If this were a film, we'd say the couple has "chemistry."

In conclusion, an enjoyable light read.

[Nancy · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wish I had read the reviews before purchasing... It doesn't have any redeeming qualities - there was a description of a gourmet meal that was awful beyond words (started with oyster sorbet - turn to page 37); character development is non-existent; the plot and its development are leaden and the wording itself is pretentious and obtuse. Clearly, it is time to put this book down - I love reading a good mystery, but this one just isn't cutting it.

The line that made me decide it was time to put the book down (it took me 12 more pages to be really sure): "Capucine hesitated, her finger poised on the elevator button in the lobby of the "swimming pool," the DGSE's drab headquarters in the even more drab Twentieth Arrondissement." So many words for such a small contribution to a boring story. But, yes, she did push the button, in case you were wondering.

[Nancy · Rating 1 out of 5]

It's too bogged down with technical crap about the french police. I think three chapters start with Capucine being unable to sleep. Here's some of Chapter 5:

Even the unintentional cynicism of the fiscal division's address--122, rue Chateau des Rentiers, the coupon clipper's castle--failed to cheer her up, as it invariably did even in the worst of her moods.

For lack of anything better, her plan for the day was rudimentary, a quick run-through of her office at Rentiers to deal with any departmental effluvia that might have emerged during the night and then down to the Quai des Orfevres to sic the three brigadiers on the restaurant staff.

[Kirsten · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a delightfully entertaining debut of a cozy mystery series. What makes it a standout is that the characters and the sense of place are so well defined, especially so for a cozy.

Set in Paris in the gourmet restaurant area, it was filled with such details. There was food and references, many of which I was ignorant of, but I didn't care.

The characters were fun, the plotline was complex and beautifully crafted, and the denouement was satisfying. I highly suggest to any fan of Columbo and/or cozy mysteries.

[Beth]

This was a free download for my Nook. It was overpriced.

This book contains homophobia (one cop calls another a fag), sexism (the protagonist sees nothing wrong in using her body to influence a superior so she can get a promotion) and a huge amount of pretension. Oh, and a little American bashing is also included.

Overall it has the feeling of someone who spent a couple of weeks in France showing off their "knowledge" of the language and colloquialisms. It really amazes me that in 2013 a nasty little book like this can find a publisher.

[Andrea · Rating 1 out of 5]

First, I want to make it clear I read this entire book. Second, I want to make it even more clear that I do not recommend anyone else do so. WOW, this book is a hot mess of confusion. We have tons of information about the French Police system, which made no sense at all to me. We have a main character that sometimes has very feminist thoughts, like being annoyed when male colleauges treat her like an idiot because she is a woman, but then who turns around congratulates herself for being so clever for getting a job promotion by letting the boss look down her shirt at her bra-less boobs. Half the characters in the book make comments about why she is with her husband, an older, overweight food critic with nearly the same name as the author – and from what we are actually provided in the book, I have NO idea why they are together. Also, the author-name thing makes it creepy that they have “off-page” sex about 40 times during the course of this book. As others have mentioned, there are times when the food descriptions – which one would think would be vital to series called “Culinary Mysteries” – are actually really stomach-turning and gross (terrible adjective choices for textures, etc…). My final confusion about this book – Capucine? Is that pronounced like “capuchin”?? Because I got a ton of enjoyment from imagining the main character as a tiny monkey running about solving crimes.

[Lizzerbeem · Rating 2 out of 5]

Calling Capucine the protagonist is a bit overkill, since she serves only as the conduit for all of the secondary male characters to info-dump the case... and fantasize about her or the female suspects sexually.

[Connie N. · Rating 2 out of 5]

I had expected something quite different from this book, having pictured it as a cozy mystery with a food theme based on the series name of "A Capucine Culinary Mystery." BTW, Capucine is the heroine (pronounced kap-puy-seen, I looked it up). But the only connection to cuisine is that the dead body was found in a restaurant by the chef. And Capucine's husband is a food critic. Other than that the entire mystery was much more of an industrial espionage story that I found less-than-exciting. The writing is OK. What's odd is that it seems as though it's written by someone not from the U.S., especially since it's set in Paris, but this is in fact not the case. Campion is American, so I guess his writing skills are a little stilted. His language skills are good, however, and I enjoyed the extensive vocabulary he used. The characters are just OK, and I hope I never get arrested in France if this represents how brutal they are with their suspects. I found them to be very heavy-handed and unpleasant. I suppose a female police officer must face a lot of discrimination in any country, but the sexual innuendos handed to her over and over again just got tedious. The point was made the first time or two and didn't need to be continued. I probably won't continue with this series.

Favorite quote about marriage, "She gave Alexandre a withering look that would have been rude had he not been her husband."

[Jessi · Rating 3 out of 5]

I got this book for 99 cents and wasn't sure what to expect. It was certainly interesting. I have done no Googling for this but I am assuming it was translated from another language. It was very... French.
So, Capucine is a gorgeous police woman. She's been working in financial crimes and wants to work her way up the ladder and also into some more interesting crimes. Her husband is a famous food critic which comes in handy when a body is found in the freezer of a well-known restaurant.
I skimmed over a lot of the physical description of the detective (yeah, yeah, we know she's hot and that men are attracted to her. You've mentioned that.) And I was able to ignore that, but the sexism. Harder to ignore. This may be endemic to France, I don't know the culture all that well, but why create a female detective if she has to rely so heavily on all of the male characters to help solve her crimes?
An okay start but I probably won't hunt down the second book. If it lands right in my path for an inexpensive price, I probably would read it though.

[Droewyn · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was a Nook Free Fridays book.

It was a competent enough mystery, but I hated the main character. Capucine was born a rich French socialite but wanted to do something meaningful with her life, so joined the Paris police force. Not content with her cushy desk job in accounting crimes, she wants to be transferred to Homicide. So she puts on her best designer suit (all of her clothing is "a so-and-so tailored whatever"), takes off her bra (because it will make her "look tough"... SERIOUSLY), and goes to talk to her boss. Impressed by her can-do attitude, or her perky nipples, the boss puts her on a murder case in which the body was found in the freezer of a three-star restaurant. Think Reese Witherspoon in one of those 90's Reese Witherspoon movies, except Capucine's not as likeable.

Just... bleah. The quirky foodie bits weren't even that good; just lists of what they ate for the most part.

[Kandice · Rating 2 out of 5]

Once the book got going, I thought it was just OK overall. I don't know if the French are sexist, or that quality only belongs to the author, but I found the beginning offensive and almost didn't finish it. The fact the main character didn't want to wear a bra when she wanted to get her way, and the fact that all the men around her seemed to be assessing her physical qualities, almost ruined the book for me. About a third of the way into the book, the mystery became more interesting. However, I read this for a book club and can't actually see my way to reading any more books by this author. He'll definitely be on my list of authors to skip in the future.

[Peggy · Rating 1 out of 5]

I cannot even finish this book. I don't know if the author is wanting to paint all French people as rude and inconsiderate, but that's the impression I get. The main character is a woman police lieutenant but just about every single person she encounters - from peers to superior officers to subordinates - treat her with disdain, insulting her to her face and behind her back. Why we are supposed to accept that she accepts this behavior is beyond me. It's too stupid for me to waste any more time reading it.

[Caroline Ingvaldsen · Rating 4 out of 5]

First in the Capucine Culinary Mystery series featuring an exquisite "flic" and her food critic husband and starring Paris and the gourmet culinary scene.

[JG (Introverted Reader)]

Life's too short to keep going with this. It's not horrible but there's just been one too many mentions of cleavage and policewomen using it to get what they want for my taste. Moving on.

[Anki · Rating 2 out of 5]

I got this ebook as a Free Friday title on my Nook back in 2013 (it sounded at least marginally interesting, and hey, it was free), then it sat unread until now. Let's just say I am glad I didn't spend any money to get this book, and I would really like about half of the six hours I spent reading it back. It wasn't absolutely terrible, but I felt a fair amount of disappointment when I was done.

From the cover art and cover copy I was expecting a cozier sort of police procedural with a foodie bent, which is why I picked up the book in the first place. Well, there is a police procedural type thing going on, and there is foodie stuff, but they did not play well together in creating a satisfying narrative. Rather it felt that the novel lurched and jerked from one narrative line to the other with very little to connect them apart from overlapping characters (and the victim being found in the walk-in cooler of a French restaurant).

French words are sprinkled haphazardly throughout the novel, but instead of helping to set the tone they were mostly just annoying to have to puzzle through. On top of the seemingly random French sat a plethora of "author words" (more obscure words that basically show the author knows how to use a thesaurus, chosen without regard to characters and tone of the story) alongside a hefty dollop of casual profanity/vulgarity.

I was invested enough in the story to want to know how things ended, but when we do find out who stuffed the victim into the walk-in cooler of the fancy French restaurant we are told in probably the most boring way possible, and the culprit and motive feel practically random. There was no real foreshadowing, no information trail for the reader to follow. Poirot and Holmes may be able to get away with being the smartest person in the room and revealing the train of thought they used to solve the mystery; looking back on their stories you can see the clues laid out for the reader to pick up on. Capucine uses off-page information to "cleverly" pull everything together, and it just falls flat.

I did learn some things about French cuisine while reading this novel, but the main thing I learned is that I doubt I will pick up any more books by this author.

[Stephen · Rating 1 out of 5]

I could not have written a novel more insulting to women had I set out with that as my paramount goal. From the first few pages, the narration in this culinary mystery reflects the libidinous preoccupations expected of a boy in high school. The author is intensely focused on his heroine's breasts and buttocks and, consequently, so is she. So, when she visits her superior (she is a French police officer) to ask for a promotion, she calculatingly goes without a bra. Most of the men in this book are either leering or "mentally undressing" most of the women. Capucine, the protagonist, is assigned to investigate the death of a man whose body is found in the walk-in cooler of a three-star restaurant primarily because her husband is a well-known Paris restaurant critic. While having lunch with her lecherous cousin and her husband Alexandre, they discuss the progress of her investigation. The cousin advances a theory. "'I don't get it,' Capucine said. 'I see his point,' Alexander said. 'Let me try to explain.'" (p. 159) I confess I do not know the French word for mansplaining. One of the minor characters in the novel is a young woman who is recruited by an industrial espionage agent. She describes to Capucine how he hurts her when they have sex, even to the point of causing her to bleed, but says that she is turned on but the violence. I was so looking forward to a "cozy" murder mystery which involved cooks and restaurants and wine and ingredients. There's a bit of each of those elements in this book but not enough to balance the disgusting sexism. I see that there are four sequels in the series. No thanks.

[Lonna Pierce · Rating 3 out of 5]

This “culinary mystery” is more a psychological mystery, but Detective Capuchine, of the Paris Metro financial forgery unit, transfers to the gritty city beat to solve an inscrutable crime. A dead Renault Motors Président is found in the freezer of a 3-star restaurant. As a “flic” (cop)she must sort out the lies and convoluted clues that may include industrial secrets theft as well. Snobbishly Parisian in tone, with bizarre menus and pretentious vocabulary, it is often too precious and self-involved. Also, women are continually objectified, while men seem consistently on the prowl and openly lascivious. Alexandre, Detective Capuchine’s food critic husband, is her intellectual equal, and a poorly-disguised stand-in for the author, Alexander Campion. It kept me guessing; and had some unique insight into the difference between Paris and NYC restaurant patrons.

[Ryan · Rating 4 out of 5]

this is a police procedural set in France, by the cover it appears as a culinary mystery, but its not. it features a young rookie policewoman, Capuncine De Tellier, and Her husband, a well know food critic she's stuck on desk job in white collar crime investigations until she gets her big chance to work a an actual murder investigation, after a body of the president of a big automotive giant is found dead in the walk in cooler of a French restaurant. Its a combination of French food. the charaters are okay, and the police procedure is great, it's mostly a whodunit, but you do get glimpse of the murder, nothing is revealed thought. it doesn't hold back on the clues, and the suspense is what you would expect with a police procedural.

[Sheila · Rating 2 out of 5]

Read, but kind of wish I didn't.

I bought it after a visit to Paris, which included a number of great food experiences. However, I found the book to be mostly annoying. The main character is a female detective, whose husband is a restaurant reviewer. I felt it to be quite sexist despite female main character, and restaurant/food theme is distracting more then helpful. Writing included way too much unnecessary description. Only positive is fairly easy read and mildly distracting. Wouldn't recommend unless nothing else around to read.

[Charlieo · Rating 1 out of 5]

What a horrid book. I think he wrote it with a dictionary at his elbow, trying to impress someone? His word choices, often, appeared to me to be ridiculous, not at all intriguing, and totally out of place. If that was supposed to be impressive it missed the boat. I expected beautiful descriptions of food, the title is the The Grave Gourmet, that wasn't happening. And the dialog among characters, I thought I was reading about teens. I actually couldn't finish, I forced myself to read 100 pages but just couldn't continue wasting my time so, sadly, I put it down.

[EmmyT · Rating 2 out of 5]

Liked the setting, Paris, and thought characters could be interesting. Forced myself to read 50% of the book hoping the author would quit hating his character and start giving her some brains. I finally couldn't take any more of the detective being so stupid and having all the non-police men explaining how she should do her job. I figure the author hates women. It's unbelievable to me there is more than 1 book in this series.

[M.J. Compton · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was some kind of Kindle Freebie. I should have been paid to read it. I cannot believe a traditional publisher bought this book. I can't believe I forced myself to finish it if for no other reason to get it off my Kindle. I had high hopes, but the book was sexist, trite, overwritten, too many characters, long passages of nothing to do with the plot...even the food and wine scenes (usually a favorite of mine) were dreadful.

[Gloria · Rating 2 out of 5]

A culinary mystery with a female policewoman at the helm. On the culinary level, it is almost distasteful at times, eating whole small rare birds right down to their feet. Nothing will have you drooling.

The plot surges, goes nowhere, and stops. Repeat. Book also can’t seem to wind up.

Women are not portrayed particularly well either, mainly as sexual objects or just ineffectual at their work.

Generally good setup of plot and characters but needs a better editor perhaps.

[Irene · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ugh worst book I read so far this year . I got lost several times trying to follow through with the plot in between all the different characters and the constant influence of french culture and landmarks making me lose interest in the book itself . Would never recommend this book