FOLLY DU JOUR

Barbara Cleverly has written a stylish, suspenseful murder mystery set in the bohemian, hedonistic Paris of 1927. The story has charming but dangerous women, a stupid but vicious police inspector, an upstanding Englishman who is in jail for the murder of a fellow officer, nude dancers, knife-wielding gangs, and much more. Narrator Terry Wale’s voice lacks the sonorous quality of some British readers, but he captures the dramatic tension of each moment. He also makes the detective hero, Joe Sandilands, seem real, not like a stage-set English inspector. Listeners will enjoy the glamour of Paris between the wars and gain a look at a dark underworld of vice and murder. D.L.G. © AudioFile 2009, Portland, Maine [Published: APRIL 2009]