Books

Murder on the Côte d’Azur

Recently retired NYPD detective Max Davies, his art expert wife, Miranda, and their dog, Watson, just want a relaxing French vacation full of good food and high culture, but the dead body that turns up on their terrace puts those plans on hold.

Set in Nice, the Riviera capital of sunny pleasures and shady characters, this cozy mystery leads readers through the narrow, twisting streets of the old town, where the ancient rituals of the Red Penitents, a secretive religious order, collide with a Corsican underworld of illicit drugs, forged art, and counterfeit purses.

Max’s college fraternity brother, Philippe, turns out to be the Commandant of the Police Judiciaire, but Max, Miranda, and Watson have to take matters into their own hands (and paws) as red-robed bodies pile up and the evidence keeps pointing to them.

This first book in the Max and Miranda mystery series introduces the sophisticated Manhattan couple who travel the world cheaply by swapping apartments; unfortunately, getting what they pay for always leads to murder.