Books to Read This Winter: cozy mysteries, ooignant historical fiction and inspiring biographies all linked to France.

Immerse yourself in books that capture the essence of France through captivating mysteries, rich historical fiction, and fascinating biographies. Curated by Julia Girard-Gervois, a French expat living in the United States, each title in this list offers a unique glimpse into French history, culture, and the complexities of its people. Some stories will lift your spirits, while others may tug at your heartstrings, making them perfect for those chilly nights curled up with a warm cup of tea or a glass of fine wine.

Mystery & Lifestyle

Bruno, Chief of Police by Martin Walker
Travel to the Dordogne region with Bruno, a village police chief whose cozy life is disrupted by crime and mystery. With a devoted fanbase, Walker’s series combines suspense, charming local customs, and the beauty of rural France. This series opener is a must-read and will with no doubt make you want to travel to the French countryside of Dordogne. Read more about Bruno’s world and the bucolic countryside of Dordogne here.

A Noël Killing by M.L. Longworth
Set in the festive streets of Aix-en-Provence during Christmas, A Noël Killing (Book 8 of the Provençal Mystery Series) sees Judge Verlaque and Marine Bonnet unravel a murder case amidst holiday cheer. Evocative descriptions of Provence’s food, wine, architecture and traditions, make this mystery novel a must-read for francophiles.

The Bordeaux Betrayal by Ellen Crosby
The novel is set in Virginia’s wine country, but it ties in with Bordeaux’s rich winemaking heritage, touching on topics like the classification of Bordeaux wines and the influence of Jefferson on American oenophiles. Lucie’s investigation takes readers through local vineyards, small towns, and historical sites, creating a suspenseful atmosphere as she uncovers hidden truths. The Bordeaux Betrayal is a treat for those who are interested in wine culture and the connection between Bordeaux and early American history.

Historical Fiction

Labyrinth by Kate Mosse
The first book in Kate Mosse’s Languedoc trilogy intertwines the lives of two brave women separated by 800 years but connected through a mysterious secret in the medieval town of Carcassonne. As they each face challenges tied to the Cathars, a persecuted medieval religious group, the story beautifully captures the South of France, blending historical intrigue with touches of the supernatural.

Read our interview with Kate Mosse.

The Paris Architect by Charles Belfoure
In this WWII-era novel, an architect is reluctantly drawn into the French Resistance, designing hidden rooms to shelter Jews from the Nazis. Belfoure’s novel is a tense, morally complex story that reveals the strength and bravery found in Paris under occupation.

The Eleanor of Aquitaine Series by Elizabeth Chadwick
This series offers a captivating look into the life of Eleanor of Aquitaine, one of medieval France’s most powerful figures. The story is told with vivid detail, exploring Eleanor’s influence in the courts of France and England.

Joan of Arc by Mark Twain
In this lesser-known classic, Mark Twain presents an admiring portrait of Joan of Arc through historical fiction. Twain’s dedication to Joan’s story reveals a side of him as a writer that many may not know. Twain’s unique perspective is a compelling read.

The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah
This bestselling novel, soon to be a major motion picture starring Elle Fanning and Dakota Fanning, tells the story of two sisters’ resistance to the Nazi occupation in France. Hannah’s emotional storytelling highlights the bravery of ordinary people during extraordinary times.

Biographies, Memoirs & Historical Non-Fiction

Josephine: The Hungry Heart by Jean-Claude Baker and Chris Chase
Apart from her rise in Paris’s Jazz Age and her courageous work as a spy in the French Resistance, Baker’s life was also marked by her dream of building a “Rainbow Tribe,” a family of adopted children from diverse backgrounds. She realized this vision at her beloved Château des Milandes in the Dordogne countryside, creating a haven of inclusivity and love. Yet despite her remarkable achievements, Baker’s later years would be marked by financial and personal hardships, making her story both inspiring and profoundly moving.

The Widow Clicquot: The Story of a Champagne Empire and the Woman Who Ruled Itby Tilar J. Mazzeo
Meet the visionary behind Veuve Clicquot, who transformed her late husband’s vineyard into a thriving champagne empire. Mazzeo’s biography celebrates a pioneering woman in French wine history and brings to life the allure and grit of 19th-century France.

The Cartiers: The Untold Story of the Family Behind the Jewelry Empire by Francesca Cartier Brickell
This biography traces the story of the Cartier family and their journey to creating one of the world’s most iconic jewelry brands. Through wars and revolutions, the Cartiers have left an enduring legacy in both France and the world of luxury. With behind-the-scenes stories, this book is a fascinating glimpse into the glamour and ingenuity that has shaped Cartier’s lasting legacy

Lust for Life by Irving Stone
This biographical novel about Vincent van Gogh vividly portrays the artist’s passion and struggles in France’s countryside and Parisian art circles. Stone’s work gives readers insight into van Gogh’s inner world and his incredible artistic legacy.

The Bedford Boys: One American Town’s Ultimate D-Day Sacrifice by Alex Kershaw
Kershaw’s well-researched account commemorates the young men from Bedford, Virginia, who were among the first to storm the beaches of Normandy. This moving narrative links a small American town with France’s WWII history, highlighting the bravery and sacrifices made on D-Day.

The Good Life France Series by Janine Marsh
In this memoir series, Janine Marsh, an expat from London, invites readers to experience rural French life through her eyes. Her humorous, heartfelt narratives capture the beauty and quirks of everyday life in the French countryside, making this series a delightful escape.

Julia Girard-Gervois is a tour guide and owner of TripUSAFrance

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Ilse Erlund is a translator who lives in a house on stilts along the west coast of Greenland. Isolated and restless in her world by the sea, she convinces her publisher to pay for a trip to the country she has never visited but whose language she speaks fluently: France. Her mission is to translate the verses of Geoffrey “Po” Labaye, a charismatic poet known as “the last living troubadour of Provence.”

Upon arrival in the medieval hilltop village of Belle Rivière, Ilse falls under the spell of the Provençal way of life, captivated by the air, the sun, the vibrant spring colors, and the dulcet sounds of the dialect. Soon enough, Ilse is captivated by the poet, too, and she and Po develop a daily rhythm and warm camaraderie—which is disrupted by the arrival of the poet’s son, Frey. Though he has a fiancée back in Paris, Frey turns his attentions to Ilse, and suddenly she is forced to learn another language, one her translation skills have not prepared her to decode. Where—and with whom—does her future lie?

With an eye and ear attuned to the sensibilities of French life, Elizabeth Birkelund has created a love story about a woman forced to choose between the security of her quiet northern home and the possibility of the life of her dreams.

Review of A Northern Light in Provence

In  A Northern Light in Provence, author Elizabeth Birkelund effortlessly takes you to two very different worlds as the main character moves between her homeland, Greenland and sunny Provence. Her very readable writing style carries the you along, immersing you in the story and it’s an absolute treat to read as the author knows how to use language to the best advantage – every page is memorable.

This is one of those can’t put it down books. The characters are wonderfully rounded and realistic, you feel you know them, and more importantly you like the ones you should. The emotional roller coaster story is sublime, not over the top or clichéd.

The descriptions of Provence are wonderful, the words bring to life the warmth and colours, in your head you see the wonderful flowers, the table set for two in a vineyard… The descriptions of Greenland are fabulous, having never been there it was easy for me to imagine the chill pure air, the crunch of snow underfoot, the howling wind and the raging sea. Two very different countries, two very different possibilities.

The author is a master writer, her way with words is outstanding. The book holds your attention on every page, it really is that good. In fact, it’s gone on my best-books list. One to read again. And again.

It’s a beautiful, grown up love story and its beautifully written.

Available on Amazon and all good book stores online and in the high street.

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Preview

In the heart of France, a daring heist unfolds. Two thousand bottles of the world’s most coveted wine vanishes from a prestigious Domaine in Burgundy. The world of fine wine is thrown into chaos.

Enter Catalina Syrah and Nicholas Bonhomme – lovers and espionage agents with a taste for the finer things in life. Their mission? Ensnare the thieves before the wine vanishes into the black market. But a deadly threat looms over them. An unseen enemy, a traitor lurking within the web of international intelligence.

From a chilling assassination attempt at the American Library in Paris, to a heart-stopping shootout amidst the haunting labyrinth of the Paris catacombs, and finally a high-stakes take down at a heavily fortified villa–every step draws them closer to the thief, and deeper into danger.

Can they recover the stolen wine, or will they become the next victims of a deadly game of deception and intrigue?

Review

The book is an easy quick read with likeable characters, and a few twists and turns that keep you turning the pages, plus lots of lush descriptions of Paris and France – the author, who is American, clearly knows France well.

This latest adventure, the third in the series of international best-selling books from Eglinski, features a dollop of romance, a dash of dastardly villainous behaviour and a plot involving a wine heist that moves along at a good pace.

Eglinski’s latest book is a fun, engaging and light read. It’s one to enjoy with a glass of wine, a relaxing read that will appeal to Francophiles and those who love adventure books.

Find the book on Amazon

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Preview

Paris, 1936. When Dora Maar, a talented French photographer, painter and poet, is introduced to Pablo Picasso, she is mesmerized by his dark and intense stare. Drawn to his volcanic creativity, it isn’t long before she embarks on a passionate relationship with the Spanish artist that sometimes includes sadism and masochism, and ultimately pushes her to the edge.

The Paris Muse is the fictionalized retelling of this disturbing love story, as we follow Dora on her journey of self-discovery and expression. Set in Paris and the French Riviera, where Dora and Pablo spent their holidays with their glamorous artist friends, it provides a fascinating insight into how Picasso was a genius who side-stepped the rules in his human relationships as he did in his art. Much to Dora’s torment, he refused to divorce his wife and conducted affairs with Dora’s friends. The Spanish Civil War made him depressed and violent, an angst that culminated in his acclaimed painting ‘Guernica’, which Dora documented as he painted.

As the encroaching darkness suffocates their relationship – a darkness that escalates once the Second World War begins and the Nazis invade the country – Dora has a nervous breakdown and is hospitalized.

Review

Atmospheric, intense and moving, The Paris Muse is an astonishing read that ensures that this talented, often overlooked woman who gave her life to Picasso is no longer a footnote.

Louisa Treger has always been interested in exploring through her fiction, female artists and writers who have been overlooked in their lifetime. This theme is profound in The Paris Muse. So often women linked romantically to ‘great men’ – men who can be narcissistic and abusive – are seen only in relation to their part in the man’s work. Their ‘muse’ if you will. But these women – and Dora Maar is a perfect example of this – produced great work themselves. Picasso is interesting too in that there are multiple female artists overshadowed by him in their lifetimes, women who he also actively tried to ruin the careers of.

It starts well, Dora Maar was young, beautiful, passionate, creative when she met Picasso and he found her inspiring. But the honeymoon period doesn’t last, and she becomes known as Picasso’s Weeping Woman, her heart broken by his infidelity and controlling, psychologically traumatising behaviour.

The raw torment of her love for Picasso, the realisation that the emotion is not returned, is heart breaking. There’s no sugar coating of Dora’s complex problems with her family, her lover, her friends and especially with herself. The artist was a conflicted, gifted, and complicated woman, Louisa Treger writes as if she were inside Dora’s head, feeling the passion of first love, and the betrayal of the love of her life, the fear of living in occupied Paris in the war, the punch in the gut feeling of treacherous friends and the loss of a child.

The story is dramatic. Dora feels everything with so much passion, she has no brakes on her emotions.  I found myself wanting her to overcome the situation she was in, shake her and tell her to just accept it for what it is – love hurts, you’re a talented woman, don’t give up.

Wonderfully detailed context all the way along places the reader there with her. Paris at war, the south of France with ‘friends’, many of them well-known artists, living a life that made her a part of the toxic lifestyle that Picasso and his cronies lived.

But it’s not all about her love, it’s clear that Dora Maar has enormous talent though she was overshadowed by her lover. And there is pain, most people could not see past Picasso to see the real woman, the talented artist who was his Paris muse.

The book is gripping and pulls you in from start to finish. I read it in two sessions – I couldn’t put it down. And it’s one to read again, the second time slowly, savouring the details.

Deeply researched, this is a beautifully written, finely tuned, unflinching narration that is filled with emotion, weaving past and present together and telling the tale of a remarkable artist and her remarkable, but decimated life.

Published by Bloomsbury Publishing and available in all good bookshops online and in the high street.

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This complete cooking course on charcuterie, written by the world-renowned culinary school’s experienced teaching team of chefs, features everything you need to know to create delicious terrines, pâtés, pies, and other charcuterie dishes. It includes 35 techniques explained in more than 200 step-by-step instructions, to prepare sausages, debone and fillet fish, or decorate a pâté en croûte, and 70 recipes organized by category: pies, tarts, and pâtés en croûte; pâtés and terrines; rillettes and pulled meats and fish; stuffed dishes; and cooked charcuterie.

Replete with 350 illustrations, this comprehensive cookbook explains the history and fundamentals of French charcuterie―an age-old craft―provides key terms and their definitions, and includes detailed diagrams of meat cuts in the US, UK, and France.

Base recipes for pastry, broths, and stuffings as well as condiments such as chutney or pickled vegetables are featured, alongside techniques for cutting and cleaning ingredients and assembling and decorating dishes. From country pâté to eggplant and miso terrine, Scotch eggs to spicy cabbage and herb sausages, salmon and spinach terrine to Beef Wellington, or Serrano ham croquettes to blood sausage empanadas, the easy-to-follow recipes include traditional versions as well as innovative, modern reinterpretations, including plant-based and meatless variations.

There’s an excellent introduction to all the components of pies and pates, terrines and tarts etc from what adding salt does, to the origins of charcuterie in France. There’s also a section on equipment, cutting and preparing ingredients – everything you need to know to prepare the recipes at home. I loved the chapter on decorating pies – guaranteed to up the wow factor when you make them yourself. There are photos accompanying every section.

Recipes are very clearly written, and photos show what every stage should look like from preparing jellied broth to making pork rillettes. And there are really helpful notes.

Some of the recipes take time and are not a quick and easy fix but this is real French cuisine at its best – and nothing as delicious as these recipes should be rushed. Making the recipes is part of the adventure, and with very clear instructions, they are doable – and eating them is the icing on the cake! Some recipes are simpler, like the vegetarian carrot rillettes which I can tell you from personal experience is superb and not hard to prepare.

Published by Flammarion, Charcuterie: Pâtés, Terrines, Savory Pies: Recipes and Techniques from the Ferrandi School of Culinary Arts is available from all good book shops online and in the high street.

Find example recipes from the book below

Scallop and vegetable hot air balloons with Champagne sauce

Braised ham

Spicy pork burger

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From the most famous gardens―Versailles, Luxembourg, or Tuileries – to the hidden leafy gems such as the Château de Saint-Jean-de-Beauregard vegetable gardens, the Bourdelle museum’s sculpture garden, or the Albert Kahn Japanese-style garden, this guide takes readers on a cultural tour of France through the most spectacular gardens in and around Paris.

The book includes details about the history and conception of each garden. It’s full of fascinating facts, together with cultural and botanical context. Practical details and insightful sidebars help visitors discover the notable features of each garden. Fabulous photography and illustrations are accompanied by a wealth of fascinating facts and botanical details offering the armchair traveller a dazzling virtual tour. Marie explains the origins of the garden’s name as well as the stories behind its sculptures, parterre gardens, botanical collections, fountains, and other follies as well as noteworthy plants, flowers, trees and more.

Discover how a wager between Queen Marie-Antoinette and an aristocrat led to the creation of a small chateau and gorgeous gardens in the heart of Paris – built in 64 days! Parks with beautiful cafés where you’ll as if you’re in the countryside. Greenhouses that contain amazing collections including one that has 60 varieties of citrus trees, and the incredible glass house of the Jardin des Plantes, where you’ll also find a historic zoo, created after the French Revolution to house the animals from the Palace of Versailles.

From vast parks to private gardens, communal plots to the grounds of historical monuments, this reference guide offers an extensively illustrated selection of the most exceptional gardens in and around Paris, including drawings and photographs along with opening hours, prices, and what to do when visiting. It’s a really useful guide to Paris that takes you beyond the usual.

A celebration of the most beautiful parks in and around Paris – total inspiration for where to while a few hours away in the heart of nature, history and culture, or for armchair travel, or to inspire your inner garden designer muse.

Extracted from The Most Beautiful Gardens in Paris by Stephane Marie (Flammarion 2024)

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Adventures on Land and Sea is the most recent instalment in Carole’s series Savoring the Olde Ways – a collection of culinary-travel memoirs roaming across the length and breadth of France (with a brief sojourn to Italy to slurp on pasta alla vongole for Book Three). Now we are firmly back in French territory, or should I say terroir, a theme pivotal to the whole series. This ‘taste and identity of the land’ is revealed in all of Carole and the gang’s day-trips, whether it’s to the market or cooking classes, or to taste wine and olive oil where all of the friends come to the realisation that the apparent flavours of “artichoke”, “apple” and “almond” don’t so easily spring to mind.

Carole and her husband Winston are seasoned travellers. On this excursion they are exploring Provence – Nice, Nîmes, Moustiers, Marseilles, San Tropez, and San Remy – along with a gaggle of friends and family, first by car, then – as the title suggests – by boat.

The year is 1997. This vacation to France pre-dates Google Maps and, most importantly, Google Translate. Booking hotel rooms took place over the phone rather than online. Consider all the avoidant ways we don’t learn languages today, and suddenly Carole’s trip is an educational one! As she explains, their well-thumbed guide – and phrasebooks, are essential travel companions, but so is a lot of head bobbing and smiling. Yet, she very successfully books hotel rooms and dinner reservations – dare I say she is fluent in French by the end?

At the book’s centre is, of course, food. This is where our author’s heart lies. Carole recounts the exquisite meals she enjoys throughout her journey – no doubt finding kindred spirits in her readers who whole-heartedly agree with her when it comes to eating “anytime, anywhere… And while in Provence, I refused to be denied… my goal in life has been to sample my way across France.” And eat well she does, every meal a celebration of fresh, local Provençal ingredients and southern French living, all accompanied by the scent of lavender, with a glass of wine in hand.

Then, when you’re so jealously hungry you could eat the book, she distracts you with lessons in Provençal culture and history. Visits to Le Palais des Papes and Arènes d’Arles plunge us into the depths of French history, but Carole’s writing gently takes us by the hand and guides us along as we follow her and her friends around the region’s jaw-dropping sites. Fun facts ease us through the thousands of years, such as the location of Vincent Van Gogh’s Starry Night or the prison which held the Man in the Iron Mask in the 17^th century.

And it doesn’t end there – oh no – as ahoy mateys, it’s time to board the boat and sail along the Côte d’Azur! The group chug into ports dotted along the coast, feasting on platters of seafood, admiring the superyachts docked nearby, and swimming in the crystalline waters after long days at sea.

Carole’s explorations of Provence are a pilgrimage of sorts, a return to the land and sea she worships, for the friends she meets along the way, the blunders and banter with her gang, and her manna from heaven – French cuisine. Reading Adventures on Land and Sea you can’t help but agree with her and yearn to be invited next time!

Available as an e-book or print (published November 2024), ISBN: 978-1647427726

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The book is brimming with inspirational ideas and go to places in Paris for those seeking a soupcon of style for their own home. Gorgeous photos and illustrations, eye candy mood boards in every chapter, the book is an absolute visual feast. Marin’s philosophy is that a beautiful object has a story to tell and he takes you through the secret world of antique dealers, amateur collectors with passion, French culture and craftsmanship from folk art to glassware, ceramics and basketry.

French artist, designer, and talented antique hunter Marin Montagut celebrates the joy of collecting everything from textiles to barware to architectural details, taking readers inside a dozen private homes, flea markets, and unusual ateliers to discover the most whimsical treasure troves in France. Follow in the footsteps of a set designer, searching for film props, admire an array of leather sporting goods and playing cards, swoon at a travel buff’s vintage maps and globes (well I did!), and ogle a sculpture studio’s Grecian plaster casts and an amateur designer’s spiral staircase models. Marin highlights a series unforgettable interiors that radiate charm. And the section about Saint Ouen, the treasure trove flea markets of Paris is stuffed full of wonderful photos –  from vintage cups and coffee grinders, specatcular copper jelly moulds, to beads and bakelite light switch covers and more.

Inspiration comes in repetition says Marin: wooden zigzag rulers with engraved numbers aligned on a wall in a herringbone pattern create an artful space. The spare wooden forms of capipotes – devotional statues used in religious processions, their eyes turned heavenward in ecstasy -and silver ex-votos can be the point of departure for the theme of an entire room.

An absolute joy to read and look at, this book is a smorgasbord of gorgeous images and enticing narrative. It will inspire you to rearrange your knickknack shelf, reorganise your ornaments and head to the flea markets of France to look for cultural treasures and start a collection!

This is a book to pick up and enjoy, over and over.

Marin Montagut is a French illustrator and designer; his Parisian boutique is dedicated to whimsical decorative objects. He is the author of Timeless Paris: Ateliers, Emporiums, Savoir Faire and co-author with Ines de la Fressange of Maison: Parisian Chic at Home. He has collaborated with brands including the Café de Flore, the Comédie-Française, Château de Versailles, Pierre Frey, and the Ritz Paris. Pierre Musellec is a lifestyle photographer; his work appeared in Timeless Paris and the magazines Faire and Milk.

Extraordinary Collections is published by Flammarion (ISBN 978-2-08-042198-2)

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Amuse Bouche: How to Eat Your Way Around France

What makes a real salade niçoise?
What type of cheese is officially France’s stinkiest?
Why does the sandy carrot have such a superior flavour?
And who exactly are the Brotherhood of the Knights of the Giant Omelette?
Leading expert on French food and culture Carolyn Boyd shares the stories behind the country’s most fascinating foods and ingredients. Spanning every region of France and divided into 200 separate vignettes, each entry blends history and travel, personal anecdotes and recipes.

It’s a fun and fascinating read, full of quirky facts, and utterly delicious descriptions. You can almost taste the food as Carolyn guides you around France, sharing her favourite dishes, cherished restaurants, fabulous festivals – an enticing resource for food lovers, Francophiles and visitors to France.

Discover the taste of Brittany – crepes, Kouign-Amman, the impossible to pronounce but utterly irresistible buttery cakes, “sinister” black tripe sausages and pâté Hénnaf which you may never have heard of, but Bretons love it so much there’s even a museum dedicated to the spam-like product!

Find out the best place to taste socca, the chickpea-based superfood of Nice, and where to buy the real deal lemons of Menton which have a unique taste and texture that makes chefs covet them and mere mortals smile at the zing.

Full of  facts, captivating historic anecdotes, fabulous descriptions and scintillating flavours of villages, towns and regions all over France – Amuse Bouche is a mouth-watering travel guide, or a journey to France from your kitchen table.

And the book is peppered with recipes that offer a taste of France at home, from tarte ds Noces, AKA the “honeymoon tart” of Ile de Yeu, it’s origins lost in time but made to this day with prunes and orange flower water. Or poulet Gaston Gerard, a chicken dish with a rich creamy sauce created in error by the Mayor of Dijon’s wife for Curnonsky, the “Prince of Gastronomy.”

Cheese, cakes, bread, bonbons, meat, fish, snails, markets, restaurants, chefs, brotherhoods of food – they take it seriously in France, this really is “how to eat your way around France” – and it’s seriously delectable.

You can have a taste of what’s in store – read Carolyn’s article in The Good Life France Summer Magazine and discover the annual omelette festival at which a 15,000-egg omelette is made in honour of Napoleon Bonaparte.

Amuse Bouche is a book to be devoured: a beautifully illustrated, joyous celebration of French food, and a charming, practical guide to inspire your own travels – whether you’re a proud Francophile or don’t know your ficelle from your flûte.

Available in hard back from Amazon and all good bookstores.

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Rachel Selle’s second instalment of the quartet’s adventure mystery series takes them to France, specifically Aix-en-Provence, to which the book’s title Aix Marks the Spot so aptly refers. Here on holiday, the four become ensnared in their second mystery when they witness the burglary of five priceless works of art. Together with their contacts in the police, they deduce the clues and follow the trial to find the painting and hopefully their culprit! This caper is the perfect escapism for adventurous readers, aged 7 to 10, with an easy-to-follow mystery at its heart.

The four cousins effortlessly fill the shoes of the Famous Five – Enid Blyton’s four plucky child detectives, who along with their dog Timmy, have swept children up in adventures and mysteries since the 1940s. Now, with Mr. Murphy, father and uncle to the cousins, taking the fifth role as sidekick, comic relief, tour guide and history expert, the four children are the perfect adventuring role models for young readers, just like Blyton’s Julian, Dick, George and Anne.

All four of our detectives are curious and interested in the world around them. Their endless intrigue leads them into exciting situations and helps them make new friends, but most importantly, all of them are so eager to learn! The children are delighted by Aix-en-Provence, a town in the south of France brimming with historical architecture. Their excited questions and curiosity teach readers about the town, transforming this work of fiction into a useful guidebook for children. It is incredibly tempting and easy to look up the real locations to see the sites which are accurately described in the book. All curious children will be intrigued to discover these far-off locations – the cathedral of Aix-en-Provence, the city’s fountains, and the artistic downtown of Marseille.

The European Adventures: Aix Marks the Spot: A Mystery Adventure Book for Kids

Even amidst the tension of hunting down an art thief, the book shows us there is so much to learn, especially for young detectives. Aix Marks the Spot’s author Rachel Selle is evidently on a mission to educate and to reveal that the ways we are taught in school is not conclusive for future enjoyment of a subject. Art and history are the two subjects she targets, and by taking her characters, and thereby her readers, up close to the artefacts, monuments and artworks, and exploring topics like symbolism, children and adults alike can learn exactly how to appreciate the beauty before us. Maybe these lessons can help us readers capture an art thief too! You never know when these skills will come in handy!

The most striking of all is the story’s timelessness – this European Adventure’s mystery could be set in any period, a theme doubled down on by the book’s beautiful illustrations as all the characters are shown to be dressed in unspecific and timeless clothing. The only clue to point us to a date are the references to phones and internet. Clearly, these detectives represent all children’s curiosity, a feat which has always defied generations. And anyway, who needs the wifi code when you have a mystery to solve?

Available from Amazon and book shops everywhere…

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