Liz's Reviews > Mastering the Art of French Murder

3.5 stars, rounded up
I will admit to being drawn to this book because of the cute title and cover, a take off on Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking. The book posits that while Julia was in Paris, she, along with her friend, become involved in a murder investigation. Although Julia is definitely an auxiliary character.
Dort, Julia’s sister, hosts a party in Julia’s apartment. The next morning, Julia’s maid finds a young Parisian girl who had attended the party dead in the cellar of the building, killed with one of Julia’s knives.
The story is told from the perspective of Tabitha, Julia’s friend. Turns out, the dead woman had a note written by Tabitha in her pocket. When the French detective seems to be focusing a lot of his attention on her and Julia, she decides she needs to take matters into her own hands.
This is a fun, light hearted romp. Cambridge writes in an easy straightforward style that makes it easy to envision each scene. Tabitha is a great main character. Young, intelligent, hoping to learn to cook, but failing miserably. The plot is fairly simplistic and it’s easy to see how things will play out. Still, I found it brought a smile to my face on numerous occasions.
I listened to this story, which was a mixed blessing. Polly Lee was the narrator and did a great job expressing Tabitha. She wasn’t nearly as good with the other characters. Her impression of Julia’s distinctive voice felt off. And while she could properly speak a french word or two correctly, she struggled with an authentic french accent when she had to speak multiple sentences, especially when speaking as one of the men.
My thanks to Netgalley and HighBridge Audio for an advance copy of this audiobook.