A Death in Gascony by Sarah D'Almeida
This is the fourth book in the Musketeers Mystery series, and I think we read it only because the Musketeers are some of my housemate's favourite literary characters. I know that my housemate has a literary crush on Athos, so this series was a perfect fit for her. But that is not to mean that it is not a good fit for me either.
There is plenty of action and activity, and much swashbuckling. It is after all a series with Alexandre Dumas' Three Musketeers as the main characters. In most historical mysteries featuring famous people or famous fictional characters, the famous person is an amateur investigator. That is not exactly the case in these mysteries. The Musketeers are investigating mysteries that center around friends and family of the Musketeers but the books do not give the impression that amateur sleuth is the new profession of the "Inseparables."
This book features a mystery surrounding the death of D'Artagnan's father and a trip outside Paris for the Musketeers to D'Artagnan's home in Gascony (an area in the Southwest of France, on the Spanish Border, including the cities of Bordeaux and Bayonne, among others). It was an interesting mystery, wrapped up in family history and secrets, but still had plenty of action for the Musketeers to practice their sword-play and knife fighting.
It was a fun and fast-paced mystery, with plenty of misdirections and questionable clues. The author kept the character profiles that Dumas had carefully created for them, and nothing was out of character for either the Musketeers or their personal servants. On the whole it was a great visit with old friends, and reminded both my housemate and me that we have never finished the Three Musketeers collection of books. Perhaps it's time to pull them out and spend more quality time with Athos, Porthos, Aramis and D'Artagnan.
One Bear's Opinion: Four Cups of Strong Tea and a Plate of Mini-Size Three Musketeers Bars
Happy Reading Everyone,
Oliver
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