Folly du Jour: A Joe Sandilands Mystery (Joe Sandilands Murder Mysteries)
*Starred Review* The first act of this new episode in Cleverly’s Jazz Age series starring Scotland Yard’s Joe Sandilands begins with a crowd of ghoulish onlookers watching blood drip from a sarcophagus in the Louvre; it then moves ahead in time to an airport tarmac, where a blustery, somewhat fearful Commander Sandilands boards a passenger plane—an Argosy (“four wings, three engines, two pilots” and 13 passengers)—bound for a Paris Interpol convention. Meanwhile, in Paris, the plan of another gruesome murder is taking form. Is there a connection? When Sir George Jardine, a retired diplomat and Joe’s mentor, is accused of nearly decapitating his enemy at a Paris music hall, and the bullheaded Commissaire Fournier of the French gendarmerie holds him in cruel custody, Sandilands subtly takes charge of the investigation. Cameo appearances by journalist Georges Simenon and entertainer Josephine Baker, along with a cast of believably developed supporting characters, build a steady crescendo of motive and opportunity until the surprising denouement reveals a troubling discordant element lurking in the very heart of the Parisian criminal justice system. This series and its hero age well: the perspicacious Sandilands exhibits an arresting combination of Mary Russell’s discernment and Chief Inspector Wexford’s tenacious certainty. --Jen Baker--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.