Edgar Bowen has a lot of people who would have many reasons to want him dead. A son who wants his money, an ex wife who loves to spend money, and a girlfriend who wants it all. When he turns up dead his ex girlfriend overhears how he died. There was a bottle of rose wine on the table with him but he hates rose wine. So now, since the police will not listen to her, she is going to find out what happened. The outcome is not exactly what you might think. Just as you think you know who the murderer was, they turn up dead. This is wonderfully written and the characters are very real and believable.

Thank you netgalley as well as the author/publisher for allowing me to read this book in exchange for my honest review.

Rachel and Magda's friendship is very realistic, they are close, love each other, but have the occasional snippy back and forth that made me smile. Rachel's husband is patiently in the background, but eventually even he gets involved.
A promising start to the series, I'm looking forward to no. 2!

Thank you to Netgalley and Thistle Publishing for the opportunity to read an advance digital copy. All views expressed are my honest opinion.

Thought I had it figured out many times! With two unintuitive and no-stopping mystery junkies Bernhard certainly knows how to put a twist to a story

Death in Paris
by Emilia Bernhard
Thistle Publishing
General Fiction (Adult) , Mystery & Thrillers
Pub Date 09 Oct 2018


I am am reviewing a copy of Death in Paris through Thistle Publishing and Netgalley:


Edgar Bowen died, it looks as if he drowned in a bowl of soup. Rachel Levi’s, his former girlfriend is surprised, how many people can die in a nice vichyssoise: After she overhears a mourner at the funeral describe the circumstances of Edgar’s Death: when Edgar was found there was an open bottle of Rose win next to him. Edgar could not stand Rose so who was drinking the wine?




The police aren’t listening to Rachel because the only thing she has is an out of place bottle of wine, so she and her friend Magda will have to solve the mystery on their own. As Rachel and Magda investigate the suspect list grows. Was Edgar’s son the murderer, he stands to inherit the money and the lux apartmen? His cold ex wife? His new girlfriend whose a spendtgrift? It seems like ever close to Edgar has a reason to want him dead.


But the suspects start dying too, making Rachel and Magda realize the murderee is one step ahead of them and haa no intention on slowing down. The two amateur sleuths must solve their first case before someone gets away with murder.


I give Death In Paris five out of five stars!


Happy Reading!

This is a great read with a Paris setting. A cozy mystery and the first in the series. Two American women go to live in Paris. A very enjoyable Saturday afternoon read that isn't predictable. It'll only take a few hours to read. So worth it

Death in Paris is a cozy mystery I wanted to love. Unfortunately, that's not the case. The story was loose and seemed to spin in random directions. The characters were not fleshed out enough. It's a good premise but lacking in execution.

- Invited to read title by publisher via Netgalley UK for a fair review. -

I was very intrigued by the book’s synopsis.

Rachel discovers the death of a former acquaintance in the morning paper and somehow finds contradicting clues to what happened. Given this is a cozy mystery series, I hadn’t expect the full-on sleuthing but overall the plot is an absolutely complete mess.

Based upon circumstantial clues and wild guesses, the story did not hold up at all! Much less for the build up of suspense.

I would like to thank Netgalley and Crooked Lane Books for this partnership.

I was immediately attracted by the title and the summary.

When a financier Edgar Bowen drowns in his soup, his ex-Rachel wonders. Except that at her funeral she hears that when she died there was a bottle of rosé at her table when he didn't drink it, who was with him? The police having declared her accidental death, Rachel will call Magda her best friend the more they will investigate the longer the list of suspects will get. Except they're all going to die in a row, isn't the murderer cleaning up?

A first book in this series read in one go so much I hooked on the story so captivating and full of suspense and twists and turns. The characters were endearing. Looking forward to reading the next book.

Death in Paris is a charming murder mystery novel set in Paris, in which two best friends turn amateur sleuths when a former boyfriend of one of them drowns in a bowl of soup. When Rachel hears that Edgar Bowen is dead, she is reminded of their time together many years ago and how he helped her grow as a person. The details she hears about his death don't add up: surely Edgar, who previously hated rosé, wasn't drinking it with his soup? With her best friend Magda, Rachel starts to delve into the case, as the police won't listen to her suspicions, but amateur sleuthing isn't as easy as TV makes it appear.

This is a classic kind of mystery novel that is suffused with references to fictional detectives and literature. Rachel and Magda are trying to think like the protagonists of mystery stories, but also finding out how difficult it can be to get information out of people and lie where necessary to get them to talk. Their friendship is a key element of the book: it is their partnership that allows them to think over the facts and fictions of Edgar's death. They're clearly depicted as friends who, as two Americans who've made their lives in Paris, have been supporting each other for a long time and are genuinely there no matter what. Another major part of the book and related to them being Americans is its depiction of Paris: this is a novel that invites you to take a trip down the streets of Paris, trying to give the reader a sense of living there too.

Ideal for murder mystery fans and especially anyone looking for female led fiction that prizes friendship highly, Death in Paris is a fun read that would go well with a glass of red wine.

I have to say I'm disappointed with this book. I expected a great mystery plot - great and not simply 'average' because of the premise - the murder described in the blurb and also the first chapter set me up for expecting something very original. Like, drowning in a bowl of soup? Have you seen anything like that? Because I certainly haven't. Beyond this, I really didn't expect much - some quirky characters and a strong Parisian atmosphere, maybe.

I feel like I've been cheated at all of these.

Starting off with the relatively smaller things: I never for a second felt like any of the characters were real. The two main characters, the self-titled amateur detectives, Rachel and Magda were cute and I see how they could be a fantastic pair, but sadly, in this execution, they simply weren't. They're a nice pair, sometimes funny even, but they just didn't come off as whole persons. Not to mention the others... some of them were simply a cliche - the poor student girl working because she wants to get through university, the snobbish, money-eyed and arrogant but classy ex-wife, the butler, the kind of vulgar girlfriend, the first repulsive but then overly-friendly police officer... And then there were some that weren't even a cliche - like the husband, who was used whenever he was needed for something and then conveniently disappeared.

The book didn't give me that sense of Paris, either. There are relatively long descriptions of the city and its people, but I felt like they were a bit forced. Bringing back that atmosphere wouldn't be so hard, since I've been there several times and I have some French acquaintances, and I love to reminisce... or so I thought. I was actually surprised when I read the acknowledgements and it turned out that the author had actually lived and researched in France for a while. It had me question everything I thought. Reading this book I was sure it was built on the usual stereotypes of Paris and the French. Maybe if the main character (and the other Americans in the book - which is the majority of the characters) had been living in France for only a couple of months or years, all these might be plausible. But after 20+ years! No way. Nobody is that superficial. She is not described as someone that shallow, either.

This is a slow-paced novel and that would be okay with me, but from the very beginning I felt like something with the style was off, and it didn't make me feel like time was passing faster. It took time to get used to it, and even after I did and the pacing got better, it didn't feel quite right. I don't say it was bad, because it wasn't, really, but the narration was repetitive and there was basically only telling, not at all showing. A nice, old-timey atmosphere was created, though, and if that was intended, then this worked perfectly. Unfortunately, to me it worked TOO perfectly. Somehow the style and the atmosphere didn't match the time and world the novel is set in. If it was set like 50-100 years ago, it would've worked for me better. I couldn't believe it's today, though. It didn't work out with either the place or the characters. For a long time I didn't understand why, but I felt like Rachel and Magda were somehow older and at the same time younger than they actually were. They just didn't seem like modern 40-odd year-old women. Then I realized it's because of this. They seem like ladies their age half a century ago, or maybe even a bit before that. They think old-fashioned and they're extremely naive. Okay, I'll be blunt here: at times, they're outright dumb. The Paris in the book didn't feel like today's Paris either. It felt like the Paris of slower, simpler times. This atmosphere was so strong that at times, when I almost forgot myself in the novel, the thing that kept me from it was that suddenly a cell phone or the internet was mentioned - and I was abruptly reminded that this all happened these days, and it kind of ruined even those things that otherwise would've worked for me.

Last but the most important part: the plot! The story! That was the biggest disappointment for me about this book. The promise of an awesome, unique story was what kept me reading all the while, it made me think that it's worth it, it made me expect something more even after I realized that regarding every other area this book is 'only' an average mystery for me. The problem was, it started on the high point: drowning in a bowl of soup. What an idea! Many people with half-motives. Anything can happen. Anybody could be the murderer. It had such potential! My rating of the story definitely started from 5 stars... then as I was reading it slowly got lower...and lower... but I still kept waiting for a bombastic plot twist that would meet my expectations and would make this story as original as it had sounded. And then at the ending I wasn't surprised or impressed at all. It's not that the final twist and the person of the murderer were so obvious. They were and I guessed everything fairly soon, but that's not something that always bothers me. If it's a good idea and it works, it's fine by me, but this was also such a cliched solution! The actual surprise came when I realized that according to the acknowledgements the story was based on real events (though they actually happened centuries ago, so maybe I wasn't that wrong with sensing some trouble with time period compatibility). It doesn't mean similar mystery cases weren't written before, though.

To be fair, there were things I liked, too, like the playful friendship between Rachel and Magda, Rachel's love for books, or the way they watch and refer to all those detective shows... it's a great idea that they start to investigate because they feel like they're capable of doing it after so many times spent trying to solve fictional crimes. I think that's something a lot of us can relate to.

I really loved this cozy mystery set in Paris. The descriptions were eloquent, the characters were wonderfully well written, and the mystery kept me guessing with all the turns that it took. I am looking forward to reading more in this series. I received a copy from NetGalley and the publisher and this is my honest opinion.

where to begin? I am usually a fast reader but this book took me 2 months to finish. I couldn’t get into it. There was no suspense until the very last chapter and even that suspense wasn’t so gripping to save my opinion of the book. Which brings me to my opinion that I don’t have an opinion. It wasn’t a bad read or book but I never cared for the characters and nothing pulled me in. I’m going to chalk this up to, just not being for me, but, it could be someone else’s cup of tea.

Entertaining, delightful and witty - the first of a new series of lighthearted mysteries. Set in Paris, our protagonists, Rachel and Magda, feel something is seriously amiss when one Edgar Bowen drowns in his soup - soon, however, the body count begins to rise in alarming rapidity. Intelligently written and a joy to read. I'm very much looking forward to next. Recommended.

It’s always a bit of a risk trying a new author and a new series, even if the genre is tried and tested (cosy mystery, in this case). A delicious risk, admittedly, but a risk nevertheless.

It paid off. I’d never heard of Emilia Bernhard and the book was so recently published when I downloaded it that a handful of Amazon reviews weren’t much guidance, so I opened up Death in Paris with a degree of trepidation. It’s so easy, under those circumstances, to pick a dud. But this time something went right.

The story focuses on Rachel, middle-aged, married and living in Paris, and her friend Magda as the try to unravel a suspicious death. Rachel’s long-ago lover, the fabulously wealthy Edgar Bowen, is found dead, apparently drowned in his bowl of soup as he dined alone, a passing which generates a considerable amount of behind-the-hands laughter, but Rachel’s suspicions are alerted by the detail of a half-bottle of rose on the table. Edwin hated rose…

With a crime novel you can never discuss the plot in much detail for fear of spoilers, but I will say that I found the characters interesting and credible and the plot had enough twists and turns to keep me interested. I loved the setting, in affluent central Paris, and the real sense of place which the author imparted. And I was constantly smiling at the quirky observations of wealthy Parisians in their natural milieu.

Did I think there were one or two unanswered questions? Did Rachel and Magda stumble into the trap of going in to confront the suspect when anyone else would have waited for the police to arrive? (In fairness, that’s the difficulty that cosy crime writers so often struggle to avoid.) Did I find the conversation and the disingenuousness of the sleuths a little on the irritating side, to the point that I might be struggling with it by book six in the series?

The answer to all these is yes, but it really doesn’t matter. Reviewing is so subjective. There are good books I don’t like and bad books that I’ve thoroughly enjoyed reading. Death in Paris isn’t perfect, and I’ve given worse reviews than this to books that were probably better. But it’s good — very good. It was the right book for the right moment, and I absolutely loved it.

Bring on book 2!

Thanks to Netgalley and Thistle Publishing for a copy of this book in return for an honest review.

Sometimes you don’t need high literature; sometimes you just need a book like a big hug, or a cup of hot chocolate on a winter’s day, or a snug duvet on that first Monday morning of your annual leave… That’s exactly what this is: a bit of comfort, easy to read, fun characters and a story that doesn’t take itself too seriously. The two main characters (Rachel and Magda) are best friends living in Paris investigating the sudden death of Rachel’s former lover, and the book certainly takes in some of the more familiar sites of the city as the plot develops. The expected tropes of classic crime are there: the suffering policeman who has to put up with amateur sleuths, the exasperated spouse trying to rein in the worst excesses of theories, shady characters and, of course, bodies piling up…. It is impossible to talk about the plot without spoiling anything, but I really enjoyed the self-referential nods to classic crime mysteries and modern TV detectives dotted throughout the book as it barrelled along.

For what it is this is a fun opening book in what looks like a jolly series of novels set in Paris. Unassuming, humorous and intelligent enough to keep your mind occupied, I definitely recommend it for anyone wanting a few hours’ escape into a murder mystery!

(With thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for an ARC in return for an honest and unbiased review.)

A good story, with interesting characters, but told in a very long winded way. I like books with a good plot that dot all the i's and cross all the t's, but I did find this one a little extreme. The writer is very familiar with Paris, and, as someone who isn't it was good to learn something about its ways,

Was so hoping that I would either like this or love it but unfortunately it's either,there was nothing I liked or loved about it at all, it got to the point there was times I just wanted to put it down. WITH that said I want to thank Netgalley as well as the publisher for letting me read and review it in change for my honest opinion.

Death in Paris by Emilia Bernhard (Publishing on 9 October,2018)

Genre: General Fiction (Adult) , Mystery & Thrillers
Plot:  This story is about two friends Rachel and Magda trying to investigate their first murder case.The victim is Edgar Bowen who was also Rachel's former boyfriend.While attending the funeral Rachel found out some suspicious facts which she thought would not be appropriate to share with the police.Thus she thought that she needs to solve this mystery by her own and so together she and her best friend started their journey to unravel the mystery. However, while they were investigating, one by one  their prime suspects were dying and Rachel and Magda have to be quick before the murderer kills someone else.

Writing: The whole story takes place in Paris.The book has a little touch of french language and also beautiful description about the French atmosphere ,especially cafe and food which really makes the reader get more involved in the story.

Characters:  All the characters where really good.While investigating,Rachel and Magda had to meet many suspects and the story is so enigmatic that it is hard to guess who would be the murderer.

Both Rachel and Magda had equal involvement in solving the case.You get to see much more about the friendship of these two woman.Together they make a very good team.I loved how they tried to motivate each other mentioning that they are doing a good job and also saving one another when in need.

It was an intriguing story and truly amazing.

The story gets off to a flying start with the "he died in his soup" line, which certainly sets the tone for a fun mystery. The sleuths, two American expats, are long-time friends and probably in need of a little excitement in their lives. Curious about the death of Edgar Bowen - who Rachel hadn't seen in years and whom Magda didn't know at all - they consider a little 'digging' could be quite interesting until Rachel is invited to the reading of his will.
From that point on, their investigation becomes official - at least in their minds. It would appear they have as many reasons for his untimely death as they have suspects, and with everyone seemingly close to Edgar having a reason to want him dead. Until, of course, as is the norm in the world of cosy mysteries, the suspects die too.
Just when you think the murderer will be caught in the act, there's a nice little twist.
This was a fun, easy read, with a beautiful backdrop. The relationship between the two female sleuths with their witty repartee made me smile, and the mystery, while a little predictable in its outcome, told an amusing and original tale.

It was all about rose (as in wine). The wine was so out of picture, out of question, out of taste. It pays to know your friends’ or old lovers’ taste. Otherwise, you would not noticed if they were killed or simply drowned in their own soup.
Yes, a very rich man dies in his soup in his fancy Paris apartment. He lives and dies surrounded by many women. Some of them his petit amie, some of them hate his guts. Also, this rich man has a son… a troubled son. Plus, he has… well, he has a lot.
His old lover, American poet living in Paris, comes to his funeral. She moves around people at the wake listening to the conversations. She hears something that piques her attention. Her ex-lover never drank rose… He hated it…
So, a bottle of rose next to the bowl of wretched killer-soup starts the investigation led by two women. It leads them to a lot of unexpected nooks and crannies of deceased’s life. And, of course, it leads them to a lot of Paris landmarks, cafés and restaurants.
And who did it? Well, it will become obvious somewhere along the way. Trust me.
All in all, enjoyable read. Author, clearly, loves Paris and everything about it and its inhabitants. It shows. It shows so much one can taste croissants.
Enjoy.