A review by threerings
Folly Du Jour by Barbara Cleverly

3.0

An ok mystery, but kinda disappointing after the last Joe Sandilands book, which was fantastic. This one is also set in France and is a fairly entertaining, if brief, novel. But I was annoyed with Famous Person in a Historical Novel syndrome in which one famous person after another and one famous event after another just happen to brush shoulders with or somehow involve our protagonists. I thought the book should have used either Josephine Baker or Charles Lindbergh, but not both. And then there's Georges Simenon, who is a more obscure historical personage, but again, felt superfluous. The mystery was a sort of intentional melodrama, but in such a short book it just felt contrived. Add in the appearances of characters from earlier books in the series and this is just too chock full of amazing coincidences and special guest appearances for a book it only takes a few hours to read.