Rating: 
Summary: Brainless Beach Material
Review: Though, that is not to say I did not enjoy it. Sometimes one simply needs to rest the brain, and this is a good book to do it with. Writing style is just "ok", and the story predictable, but it's a light book to read in a day, by the pool or on the beach.
Rating: 
Summary: MEDIUM MAYLE NOT QUITE WELL DONE
Review: When Provence is his provenance Peter Mayle serves a 5-star feast. Toujours Provence and A Year In Provence were delicious. Mayle's sixth presentation, Chasing Cezanne, is more of a satisfying deli sandwich, thick with slices of New York, Paris and the Riviera plus a side order of chicanery garnished with romance. The Big Apple is where photographer Andre Kelly hangs his long lens when he isn't in lush locales photographing estates and their art treasures for a trendy design magazine, Decorating Quarterly. Nourished by Evian water and greed, his editor, Camilla Porter, is as sleek as her publication. Avarice is the bond she shares with one of her paramours, an art trader. While on a photo shoot in the south of France, Andre drops by a billionaire's villa hoping to renew acquaintance with the magnate's attractively receptive daughter. Since the mansion is shuttered for the season, he is surprised to see what appears to be the family Cezanne leave in a "dirty blue Renault" plumber's van. Unable to forget this puzzling scene, Andre contacts an upscale gallery owner who deals in Impressionists, the patrician Cyrus Pine. (Think Peter O'Toole "in a gray tweed suit of European cut, a pale-blue shirt, and a butter-colored silk bow tie.") Having learned at Eton that "coming top" or winning is the only way to go, the dealer smells skullduggery and a whopping commission. While Cyrus does some investigating, Andre warms himself during Manhattan's dank winter with his agent, Lucy, a Barbadian beauty sporting a mop of black curls and skin color "halfway between chocolate and honey." The potage thickens when Andre's apartment is ransacked, and it is learned that the painting now hanging in the Cap Ferrat villa is a skillful forgery. Deciding the copyist is Franzen, a corpulent Dutch forger living in Paris, Andre, Cyrus and Lucy head for the City of Light, where an elevator is "of that particular Gallic size which encourages close personal relationships." Mayle is, of course, the most congenial of travel guides as the trio romps down the Boulevard Saint-Germain, up the Eiffel Tower and along the Seine. He's as urbanely witty as ever and still turns an intoxicating phrase: "...the sound of the cork being drawn, no louder than a sudden exhalation of breath, was followed by the whisper of bubbles rising in the glass." Less adroit when describing the murderous Paradou who stalks the trio, the author cooks up a careening chase through Cannes, Antibes and back to Cap Ferrat. With Chasing Cezanne Mayle brings to mind an accomplished boulevardier who has mastered each glance, inflection, and compliment. He knows he can easily charm, and he does.
Rating: 
Summary: merely average...
Review: Years ago I read Mayle's Provence books and I can remember laughing out loud to his descriptions of the French people and customs. I borrowed this book the other day, and eventhough I wasn't expecting GREAT things, it still let me down a little. It wasn't a terrible book by any means, but it really has nothing to recommend it. The story is stupid and makes no sense... to me at least. It's neither suspenseful or terribly entertaining. It is missing the rich descriptions of food and lifestyle from previous books, or at least,the they just don't come together as well in this one. Borrow it from a friend or find it at a second hand store, but I would not pay full retail price for this book as a fan of the classic Peter Mayle Frenchie tales.
Rating: 
Summary: a page turner!
Review: you can't put this book down until you finish it! mayle's writing style is addictive. read it!
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