Rating: 
Summary: Doing the right thing because it's the right thing to do!
Review: Chasing Cezanne illustrates the concept of doing the right thing because it is the right thing to do. Too often people ignore the small details. If you've ever read the play Trifles by Susan Glaspell, you know the motivation for murder was covered up because people overlooked the small details. In Chasing Cezanne, Andre is unwilling to overlook the trifles he believes are out of sync with the world as he perceives it. It is this unwillingness to ignore the details that leads him to uncover a conspiracy to conceal art forgeries. Along the way, he discovers the importance of relationships in business and love. The author, Peter Mayle, doesn't slow the dialogue down with metaphorical language. His people move just as easily from one continent to another. So, if you're interested in mystery, intrigue, romance, and art, this is the book for you. It's Lawrence Sanders' McNally without the use of affectation; a grown up hero who can make decisions on his own without consulting pater or relying on alcohol to sustain him.
Rating:
Summary: VINTAGE MAYLE
Review: Chasing Cezanne isn't Mayle's best book, but it's still vintage Mayle--a fun romp through the French countryside. And, as usual, Mayle brings his special brand of magic to this book as well--he captures the essence of Provence and somehow manages to convey it with crystal clarity and lots of laughs.
Rating: 
Summary: Ugh.
Review: Dismal. I have viewed better plot development and characterization in a Visa television commercial. And television must have been on Peter Mayles mind when he typed this disaster.This reads as a proposal for a mini-series. Flat, wooden characters. Hackneyed plot. Improbable coincidences. Wacky villains. Comical mayhem. No cliche' left unturned. Inane. "After finishing the last page of 'Chasing Cezanne', Richard reached for his glass of Vieux Telegraphe 1982. Swirling the still inky, purple wine while sniffing hints of cassis, lavander,and indeed, of the Rhone Valley itself, he drank deeply, hoping to wipe the awful taste of this most unpalatable novel from his memory". Take that Peter Mayle.
Rating: 
Summary: Losing Cezanne on the way to dinner.
Review: Food,glorious food.Paris in spring.New York,
London,the Bahamas,the south of France.Rich,
even wealthy people.Worldly, not so rich but
chic people,ambitious,greedy and silly
characters inhabit this novel of air puff plots,
inept thieves and clumsy small timers involved
in world class art theft.
Andre does photo shoots for glossy magazines.He's
single,lives in Manhattan,loves food and Paris,
adores the south of France where on an
assignment at Cap Ferrat he becomes witness to what looks like the theft of a $30 million Cezanne.He captures the scene with his camera,
and upon his return to New York gets involved
in the chase for the painting,what happened,
who did it, why, for whom?
This is a cute story with a Hollywood ending.
The real painting is rescued, but only after
Andre and the good guys survive a failed car crash
set-up,a bomb attack and being trailed by an assassin. Sprinkled throughout are countless
lunches and dinners in glamorous settings.
Potentially fast paced, the story gets bogged down
by distractions and cliches about food,people,
habits and it's easy to lose interest. There are
comparisons between French and American food,
discussions about airline food and French vs.
American lifestyles.Should we care? The characters
are also brought down by silly diction, Camilla, a
high-powered editor, uses "sweetie" in addressing
everyone and the English gentleman (surprise)
uses "dear boy" dozens of times.And the like.
It's also dated and makes the main character
too naive for his other worldliness, for example
in describing what his girl friend wears one
morning sitting on the bed, "The T-shirt was just
long enough to keep her out of jail." Hm. Finally,
other outdated, even curious comments about New York include,"The streets of Manhattan's upper
East Side tend to confirm the view of those who see the city as a frontier on the brink of war.
Apartment buildings are garrisons,..." This I havn't heard anywhere since the 70's.
If you can ignore the cliches, the fawning
descriptions of French food and the dated ideas
and dialog of the characters, it's possible to
discover a breezy,fun travel story with sunny
images of Mediterreanean life pleasing enough
to make you want to visit.
Rating: 
Summary: What a disappointment!
Review: Having enjoyed Mayle's previous books so immensely, I was thrilled to pick this up at a bookstore last year. What a disappointment to find it so lacking in the warmth and spontanaity of his others. I found little to care about the characters drawn here and kept hoping the next chapter would be an improvement. Even the descriptions of food and eating weren't as fascinating as A Year in Provence. Oh, well, thank you anyway, Mr. Mayle for your other books. No one can be perfect all the time!
Rating: 
Summary: A good summer read for the shallow end of the pool.
Review: Having read other works by Mayle, one gets the sense when reading Chasing Cezanne that he simply goes in his filing cabinet of places, people and things - all used before - and simply arranges them in a different order to come up with a story. Having said that, it is nice to lose oneself in a book so rich in details of luxury and experience, even if it means being left confused at times as to what is really going on in the story.
Rating:
Summary: Unexciting
Review: I am not usually driven to mystery literature, but picked up this book on a whim. Now, sometimes mysteries have a very gruesome component, and some other times they are rated PG-13 or even G. The latter is the case with this book. This novel is rather bland, and it lacks the spice present in most "grown-up" mysteries. Also, i finished the book not understanding why there had been so many copies of the painting made. It was all very confusing, and i blame my confusion on not paying enough attention to the plot, and i blame that on the fact that the story line was quite insipid and lacked a little something. There are mysteries, and there are mysteries!
Rating:
Summary: Fun n' fluffy read from the purveyor of all things francais!
Review: I can't get enough of Peter Mayle, & that includes this breezy, pond-hopping mystery with a twist of urbane humor. I would have preferred another narrator/reader. I like Ken Howard (something of a dish, wouldn't you say?) but he leaves something to be desired in his rather wooden presentation of "CEZANNE." Nice to have a non-white love interest in a story like this though...refreshing!
Rating:
Summary: disaster
Review: I cannot say that this book is a great literary work but there is something very light and enjoyable about it. It was fun to read. I have read most of Peter Mayle's books-I loved Toujours Provence,A Year in Provence and A Dog's Life...this isn't that caliber but it holds its own....it seems fitting that this book ventures into the art world....I would recommend this book-go ahead and buy it-it is only (price)-it takes about 3 hours to read.
Rating:
Summary: Light,Summery reading
Review: I cannot say that this book is a great literary work but there is something very light and enjoyable about it. It was fun to read. I have read most of Peter Mayle's books-I loved Toujours Provence,A Year in Provence and A Dog's Life...this isn't that caliber but it holds its own....it seems fitting that this book ventures into the art world....I would recommend this book-go ahead and buy it-it is only (price)-it takes about 3 hours to read.
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