Paris—the city of love, lights … and murder? Join tour guide Lana Hansen as she escorts five couples on an unforgettable Valentine-themed vacation to France! Unfortunately it will be the last trip for one passenger… celebrate Valentine’s Day with her new beau, Chad. Instead, she will be leading a lovers-only tour in France. Luckily for Lana, her best friend, Willow, and her partner, Jane, will be joining her.
Things go downhill when Lana’s new boyfriend shows up in Paris for her tour—with his wife. Chad is not the website developer he claimed to be, but a famous restaurant critic whose love of women rivals his passion for food.
After Chad drops dead during a picnic under the Eiffel Tower, a persistent French detective becomes convinced that he was poisoned. And the inspector’s sights are set on several members of the tour—including Lana!
While escorting her group through the cobblestone streets of Montmartre, the grand gardens of Versailles, and the historic Marché des Enfants Rouges market, Lana must figure out who really killed Chad before she has to say bonjour to prison and adieu to her freedom.
Introducing Lana Hansen, tour guide, reluctant amateur sleuth, and star of the Travel Can Be Murder Cozy Mystery Series. Join Lana as she leads tourists and readers to fascinating cities around the globe on intriguing adventures that, unfortunately for Lana, often turn deadly.
The Travel Can Be Murder Cozy Mysteries are heartwarming stories about making friends, traveling, and celebrating new experiences. Book One—Death on the Danube—is available now. Coming soon: Books Three (Death by Windmill) and Book Four!
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*I received a free copy of this book which I voluntarily chose to write an honest review for.
Travel anyone?? This book will take you on a fantastic trip to Paris. Lana is a tour guide for some pricey trips and this time they are going to France for Valentine’s. Before leaving she has a date with a new man she is seeing. Things seem great until the trip starts and the same man shows up with his wife. Talk about a surprise for Lana. She is just grateful that things didn’t get very far between the two of them. He does make the trip difficult when he starts fighting with others in the group. As the drama rises in between day trips it really gets interesting and then he is found murdered making Lana a suspect. Investigating while on a trip gets difficult real fast. Makes for a fun read full of French places we all know and love. Perfect for cozy fans that want a slightly older MC. I really liked it so I give it 4/5 stars.
Dollycas’s Thoughts
What could be better than Valentine’s Day in Paris?
Lana Hansen has guided a few tours since New Year’s Day in Hungary. She is also dating again but Dotty Thompson, her landlord and the owner of Wanderlust Tours has scheduled her to take a group of five married couples to Paris for Valentine’s Day and train a new guide. Boyfriend Chad also has to be out of town on business anyway. She is thrilled that her friend Willow will be on the tour. Willow surprised her partner, Jane by booking them on the trip.
After the long flight, Lana can’t wait to see the sights. She is shocked though to see Chad in the hotel lobby . . . with his wife . . . and they are one of the couples on HER tour!
Cursing the online dating app she decides to let the other guide handle Chad but finds it is impossible to steer clear of him with such a small group. She also learns he is a restaurant critic, not a website developer as he had led her to believe, and has left a lot of women in his wake. He also quickly rubs many in the group the wrong way with his critiques and pronouncements.
Soon after the tour group sits down for a picnic near the Eiffel Tower, Chad keels over dead, poisoned. Texts on his phone reveal his relationship with Lana and land her at the lop of the suspect list. She is joined by a few other members of the group.
Until they try to lock her up, the tour must go on. While visiting some breathtaking museums and gardens Lana is on high alert to find the real killer . . . but the killer has her in their sights. Can she survive this trip to the city of lights or will this be her final Wanderlust tour?
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Just like in the first book of this series the author takes her readers on a wonderful literary vacay with a great mystery to solve. She creates such imagery with her words. I have never been to Paris but I could easily visualize every step the characters took and every place they visited. Imagining the food was so easy too.
Lana is a terrific amateur sleuth, she is savvy and smart and has mastered the art of eavesdropping very well. She also doesn’t give up. Because she was an investigative reporter she has friends in the right places and the skills needed to ferret out a killer. She also has the trust of her boss to do the right thing, Dotty also has the right connections when trouble arises for her employees and guests.
Ms. Alderson also knows how to serve up a terrific story in less than 200 pages. Because the murder takes place later in the story we have time to get to know her characters. They are very well-developed for a novel of this length. Sadly all the couples were dealing with something and had come on the trip for a chance to set things right. I really liked the way Lana tuned into each couple to make the experience special for each of them, especially after the murder with a killer in their midst.
Death By Baguette features a beautiful city, decadent meals, interesting characters, and a fun mystery. I was captivated by the entire story. With the “Travel Can Be Murder” theme, the possibilities are endless. I hope this series continues for a long time.
The third book in the series, Death by Windmill, will take readers to the Netherlands. It will be released on May 22, 2020. My virtual bags are already packed.
Binge-worthyYou are hooked as soon as you start reading…
Very anxious to read more . . .
Next please More and more difficult to put down . . .
Another wonderful adventure with Lana as she takes us all over Paris. Great descriptions make you feel like you are there. This was another that I couldn’t put down. Quick-paced so I felt like I was right the rushed tour group where you come home from your vacation more stressed and tired than relaxed as the guests kept adding more stops in to try to cram as much as they could into their short Paris stay. Lots of suspects in the death of one of the guests since he was not a very nice person and managed to offend and alienate almost everyone. Great resolution to the story. Love how Lana once again uses her investigative journalist skills and contacts to get more information. Excellent parts on poison plants that any mystery fan will enjoy reading. Looking forward to the next tour.
Well written and filled with wonderful tidbits from the city they’re visiting, this narrative was expertly crafted. AND this reader was actually able to sniff out the real culprit before the big reveal.
A great new-to-me series and author! This is Book Two of the series, but was a great stand alone. I will be going back to read the first and then continuing on from there. I love it when I discover a really good new series that’s already several volumes in!
An excellent read that I highly recommend!
Death By Baguette by Jennifer S. Alderson is a complex mystery filled with renewed love and deception.
Who hated the food critic enough to kill him?
Lana Hansen
Lana is our travel guide and, of course, our sleuth. She hasn’t traveled much, but she does her homework and does a fabulous job of managing the tours normally. However, occasionally one of her charges may end up murdered. Yet, Lana keeps the tour group moving. She tries her hardest to appear as everything is perfectly fine.
I like Lana, and I see her growing from the first book. She seems to have more confidence, and she is good at keeping the group on task. I marvel at how she manages to navigate Paris, deal with the transportation, different personalities, and the last minute requests of those in her charge. Honestly, I would love to have her job, but maybe without the dead bodies.
Mystery
On this specific tour, Lana finds out that the man she has been dating is married and part of her tour group. This group is supposed to be a romantic Valentine’s tour of Paris, but the couples on the trip aren’t getting along with each other or the other guests. Their behavior is terrible. Lana handles it well for the most part, but when her friend is accused of killing the food critic, she must figure out who the culprit is. She calls in some favors from her newspaper days and learns about who has the biggest motives. However, she needs to find the murder before they find her.
Five Stars
Death By Baguette by Jennifer S. Alderson is a magnificent mystery. Ms. Alderson continually surprises me with motives and means of murder. She has also made me want to visit some botanical gardens and learn more about herbal medicine. Who knew there were so many plants that can kill a person? Oh, yes, my rating for Death By Baguette by Jennifer S. Alderson is five stars. I am enjoying this series, and I recommend it to all mystery readers out there.
I voluntarily reviewed an Advance Reader Copy from the Great Escapes Book Tours. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Thank you for dropping by! I hope you enjoyed this review of Death By Baguette by Jennifer Alderson.
This Guest Review is for Baroness’ Book Trove.
Until the next time,
~Jen
If you would like to see other reviews like this one, check out BaronessBookTrove.com.
Paris during Valentines week, what could be more romantic and murderous. Ms. Alderson’s talented ability to description the sites and tastes of Paris made me feel like I was once again visiting the sites from long ago, eating that wonderful food at picturesque cafés and leisurely enjoying the beauty of those phenomenal gardens. Throw in some wacky tour goers, a murder that any of them could have committed and you’ve got one wonderfully enjoyable read.
I loved the first book in this series Death on the Danube so I couldn’t wait to read this next adventure for our tour guide Lana Hansen.
Lana is back and this time she is taking a tour to the most romantic city in the world for Valentines – Paris, France. After her last tour despite the death, her life is looking up, she has a job that she loves and even her love life is on the up and up. Though she is sad she wont be able to spend it with her new beau Chad, she is shocked to discover that he is on the tour….. with his wife!!
It is clear that Lana and Chad haven’t been honest with each other, they only went out on a few dates so I wasn’t anything series but after her husband cheated on her she is a appalled that she has essentially became the other women. She decided to remain professional and treat Chad as tour guest and ignore him as much as possible.
As the tour progresses we learn a bit more about each person and it becomes clear that Chad is a food critic back in Seattle that writes such scathing reviews that goes as far as closing businesses down, so when he collapses and dies whilst on a picnic tour the suspect list starts to pile up even a french chef who was ruined due to Chad’s scathing review is on the list!
I loved how this story played out, everyone had a motive to kill Chad and when the police discovered that Lana was dating him she even became a suspect! I thought I had it figured out but the author did a great job of keeping me guessing until all was revealed.
I am really enjoying this series, and cant wait for book 3!!
5 stars
Lana takes a group to Paris for a Valentine’s Day tour of the city of romance; however, things don’t go to plan, and one of the group is murdered.
Well written and informative, with excellent descriptions of the famous tourist hot-spots.
I feel that is equal to the first in this fantastic series, and am looking forward to more.