What they call a light, escapist read. For me it was a contrived, light, escapist read. Longworth made sure that each and every possible South of France box was ticked off before you reached the end. She left out only the bouillabaisse. ( )

THE VANISHING MUSEUM ON THE RUE MISTRAL is written by M. L. Longworth.
It is Book #9 of the Verlaque and Bonnet Provencal Mystery series.
Lea Paulik (Bruno & Helene’s daughter) is on a school trip to the very unassuming Musee de Quentin-Savary in Aix-en-Provence.
Her notes and pictures for her assigned report on the museum will be pivotal in solving the mysterious case of ‘the vanishing museum’.
I am quite pleased with this series and this title.
The main characters are interesting, intelligent and realistic.
The locations are stunning and very well-described.
The plots are quite intricate and have several threads and sub-plots to keep track of.
The meals and wines are mouth-watering.
Well-written, tense, descriptive, nice locations and smart dialogue - I couldn’t ask for more.
**** ( )

I never know how to describe these mysteries; they’re written just a little bit differently than the standard traditional or cozy fare, and they’re one of the few written in third person. They’re much closer to golden age in writing style than anything contemporary; no internal dialogs, no tedious descriptions of … well, almost no tedious descriptions of random things. The Bonnets are gourmands, so there’s rather a lot of eating going on, and they’re in Aix-en-Provence, so it all sounds rather amazing. But otherwise, sparse and efficient writing.

Someone has stolen an entire museum. True, it’s a small museum, but nonetheless no small feat, with no witnesses and no clues. Then a main suspect is murdered and another grievously injured and still the police are left frustrated. It comes down, in true mystery style, to pieces put together not by the police themselves, but by their family members and friends, and the while the ending isn’t shocking, it’s clever and satisfying. Enough clues are there for the reader to see the general direction things are going, but details are left for the big reveal.

These books are comfortable, relaxing and enjoyable reads. ( )

A small local Aix museum that houses mainly a collection of porcelain plates once owned by Napoleon & an odd painting attributed to a quasi-famous painter is cleaned out.

All of the board members, the traveling salesman, donors grand-son, secretary/assistant, & curator have keys and many of them have motives. Oddly, also missing is the vase of flowers that usually sits on the information/sign-in desk.

Then the man, who has been trying to combine his museum with the Aix, is found dead and laying beside him is the museum's director; both coshed in the head.

Included in the investigation is a former art thief who is now running a water buffalo ranch...

The part with Verlaque's new wife, who is pregnant, bored me. But the rest held my interest. ( )