A lighthearted and quick novel featuring murder mystery in a quiet french town. Richard, the proprietor of a quaint bed and breakfast, is cliché an englishman as they come: crotchety, tutting and entirely over-thinking. His life is a lull, the polar opposite of the film noir he devotes his pastime to, until a guest checks in that knocks him flat: the leading lady Valerie. She’s a tour de force in getting him out of his comfort zone, via the self-appointed quest he’d much rather avoid. But as the English way, confrontation just won’t do and, alas, the game is afoot!

I really wanted to love this book. It had a the aspects of a book that I love. A simple who done it, based in a quaint bed and breakfast. But, unfortunately, this book's story line was very hard for me to follow. It was also very hard to connect with any of the characters.

Set in rural France, Richard is an ex-pat Brit who runs a Bed and Breakfast establishment in the Loire Valley. The arrival of guest Valerie sends Richard's boring existence into overdrive as he finds himself embroiled in a murder mystery that completely baffles him.
I found the humour quite amusing, the characters very lightweight and the story bordering on silly. This was a very light book, quick to read but not very engrossing.

I managed to find 5 minutes this morning to enjoy my coffee in some sunshine and finish my book, what a blissful way to start a Tuesday. The first in a new series, Death and Croissants sees hapless b&b owner Richard drawn into a murder mystery in a sleepy French town, and before he knows it he's taking on the Sicilian mafia, dressed as a chicken, and breaking into houses with the elegant and over-enthusiastic Valérie. An entertaining and witty whodunnit, this is perfect for fans of The Thursday Murder Club or The Marlow Murder Club. Thank you @netgalley for the arc.

I loved the blurb and dove into it with an expectation of humour, wit and some amazing characters.
But sadly the lethargic pace, repetition of events, lack luster one-directional characters didn’t help.
The story follows Richard a Brit expat in Loire Valley in France running a B&B. He is having issues in his marriage and is shown to be a simple, resigned and pretty boring middle aged man. In comes Valerie D’orcay a fabulously fashionable French woman who is a guest at his B&B and forces him to participate in a hunt for a missing elderly local.
There is a murdered hen, bloody handprint on the wall, broken spectacles and a lot of other things to create a thrilling atmosphere, but it just fell flat.
The humour is average and not that well etched.

Richard has many vanilla tendencies, he claims to want a quiet life, running his B&B in the Loire Valley and obsessing about films, but a surreal adventure has just crashed into his life, and he’s clearly enjoying the thrill of the chase despite his initial reservations.

A gentle, amusing story that despite an improbable mystery remains engaging and fun. Valérie was a stand-out character who just jumps off the page and into your heart. This book is perfect to help you switch off from the world around you for a few hours and just lose yourself in the eccentric characters that Moore has created.

When a book is introduced as part of a new series then there is always going to be curiosity and with a backdrop of France then the desire to read is even stronger. Ian Moores’ comedy crime caper with its leading man of Richard, the reluctant bed and breakfast owner hero, accompanied by the enigmatic Valerie manipulating him into all sorts of escapades then the scene is set when a guest goes missing and a bloody handprint is found upon a wall. Like all new series, you know you are going to invest time in the characters and the relationship will build. This story of a missing judge and the subsequent adventure is interspersed with some comic moments involving our slightly befuddled leading man who would love a quiet life but is secretly enjoying the romp. The story is carefully plotted but I was slightly torn between wanting a tighter crime tale with more tension rather than just a comedic misadventure.... maybe this is a genre that needs its own name .”Crimedy” ..the crime and comedy combo. With recent books by Robert Thorogood and Richard Osman, there is a growing group of crimedy authors. A good first start which I’m sure like a good Loire wine will improve with further instalments.

Super cute Romcom set in a Loire Valley B&B, run by Richard Ainsworth, a very British man of a certain age, separated with his wife, and barely sustained by a nerdy love of filmdom. Gliding elegantly into his ho-hum humdrum-ness sails chic and glamorous inn guest Valérie d'Orçay, followed by a mystery involving elderly twins known as the Monsieurs Grandchamps, one a judge and the other a criminal with mafia ties.

I love main character Richard's vulnerability, it lent his character a depth and completeness that really resonated. Richard's feeling unseen and under-appreciated and having opted for so long to do things he must do rather than what he wanted to, made me appreciate author Ian Moore attributing all that to a male character. Much of the humor here stems from cultural stereotypes, British, French and Italian; done artfully, without offense or exploitation, as perhaps only a professional comedian can pull off best.

The cast of characters is as comical as it is memorable: Madame Tablier Richard's angry housekeeper, Martin and Gennie Thompson the sex-caper-obsessed British neighbors, Clare his estranged wife, Alicia their 27-yr old daughter, various other suspects and randoms. Normally I don't go in for literary series, but this set of characters I would be happy to read more of. Death and Croissants is a well-crafted light and entertaining read, I didn't want to put it down, and I came across a number of edifying new words including passepartout, chunter and (my ultimate fave) gurning contest.

“Is there anything in this world quite as joyless as muesli?”

What a cracker opening line! Unfortunately Death and Croissants’ hold on me didn’t last for too many chapters. I didn’t give it the chance to bring me back.

This was received as an ARC from Netgalley.

Richard is a middle-aged English man running a B & B in the French countryside. He lives a mostly mundane life. until one day, he finds a bloody handprint on the wall and one of his guests missing.

Over all, this was a great, lighthearted, mystery that keeps you guessing about where Richard and his new friend Valerie will take you next. Right when you think you have it figured out, you're hit with a new twist that leaves you wanting more. With that being said, the ending may seem a little anticlimactic.

Richard is living a mundane life as an owner of a chambre d'hote in France. Separated from his wife his life is boring in spite of (or perhaps because of?) his encyclopediac knowledge of every film that was ever made. When an exotic and enigmatic guest, Valerie enters his life she sweeps him along in a hunt that involves mysterious letters, disappearances and a dead hen. I loved the tongue in cheek humour of Richard's thoughts and references to old films. Having lived for a short time in France myself I found the characterization authentic but I was left with one question. Who killed the hen and why?

Death and Croissants was my first book I have read by Ian Moore. Thank you NetGalley for the advance reader copy in exchange for an honest review. Richard Ainsworth is a middle-aged Englishman who runs a Bed and Breakfast in the Loire Valley. One day he finds blood on the walls, a guest is missing and eye glasses are found that are broken and bloodied. Richard and Valerie, one of his guests, take off in her car to try to find answers. A funny, but a bit odd. Ian Moore seems to have a wry sense of humor. Many of the characters that Richard and Valerie meet have the reader wondering what will happen next.

This is the first in a new mystery series from comedian Ian Moore and lives up to the reviews - the praise from a number of high profile comedians says it all!
A twisty tale with a cast of flamboyant characters, all depicted with impeccable wit. Poor, ever-so-English Richard is the unlikely hero of the story, and the plot cleverly unfolds as he begins to understand (or misunderstand) the completely bewildering situation he suddenly finds himself in. A clever whodunit that leaves the reader guessing as well as laughing. A perfect summer read.
Thanks to the publishers for an advanced digital copy - I can't wait for the next installment!

A slightly old fashioned gentle read with an element of farce and a touch of naivety. Far fetched story but also quite quirky with characters one can believe in involved in a humorous murder plot. Set in the Loire valley so a bit of eccentric French behaviour thrown in for good measure. Many twists and turns expected in a whodunnit comedy. However, I found it a little disjointed to read at times and a little slow to get into. It would make a good comedic style TV programme I feel.

Thanks for the digital ARC. What a charming read!
They say you should not judge a book by its cover but this story is just as charming and brilliant as its cover.
Richard is a middle-aged English man living a perfectly non-exciting life and running a B&B in France. He's got a hobby that might be considered "boring" by many, a general disinterest to the world at large, and a sense of humour that is in a distinctly English way. His perfectly boring life in France got upended by a charming French woman, Valerie, who is a guest staying at his B&B and could best be described, in Richard's opinion, as "a force of nature". Before He knows it, he was deeply involved in a murder investigation, dealing with hitmen, breaking into houses, and on a mission to avenge one of his hens; all the while trying to deal with his failing marriage and disillusioned adult daughter.
The book is very lighthearted. The humour is constant and perfectly delivered. The cast is, alas, sometimes stereotypical, but in a charming way--it serves the humour and is diverse enough. The mystery component is not very strong. A reader well-versed in cozy mysteries may be able to guess the plot points but there's not much of a clue so to speak. The story is not meant to be a murder mystery that you can try to solve along with the cast, but more a cozy read for you to just kick back, relax, and enjoy.

Delightfully Bonkers....
Delightfully bonkers mystery set in rural France and the first in a new series. A cast of colourful and eccentric characters populate a fun and fast moving plot, much madcap humour and and witty one liners aplenty. A reading joy and most definitely some perfect escapism. Awaiting the next with gleeful anticipation.

What could possibly go wrong for a ho-hum middle-aged man operating a B&B in the Loire Valley? A bloody handprint on the wall and missing person, of course! Not only that but enter Sicilian mafia, impersonations, housebreaking and chicken capers and Richard's life goes from ordinary to the extraordinary in no time flat. Thank goodness for Valerie who gets investigations going. She cracks me up!

Witticisms are resplendent and British humour often has me cackling which it does at times in this book (especially Richard's views on "dirty laundry", chicken humour and comical stealth involved). However, my wish for a stronger mystery element was a wee bit deflated which did not hold with my expectations. No fault of the author, of course. The book was still enjoyable. Clever cover, too.

My sincere thank you to Farrago Books for the privilege of reading this fun book!

Death and Croissants is a laugh-out-loud cosy murder mystery. It was an easy read packed with quirky humour. The only thing I did not really enjoy was how unbearably petty Richard is portrayed. Also, the misogynistic joke/thought against his love interest Valerie?! No thanks!

This is a brilliant read. The Englishness of Richard just made me laugh when his old time sayings were detailed to Valerie, it is so true we do say such things. The murder was just the right side of cosy crime and the pace of the story was so good I did not want to put the book down and I finished the book in 2 days and desperately want to start on the 2nd in this series. This is a must read for the summer and I can see this being filmed as a series. Just read you will not be disappointed.

It was a great comical murder mystery to read. Loved all the one liners in it. The story did keep me guessing till the end too.