Book 14: Paris by the Book by Liam Callanan

Format:  Kindle
Date Started:  March 19, 2019
Date Finished:  March 25, 2019

It looked like it was going to check all the boxes for me:  Paris, a mystery, books.  And then, it failed to deliver in any meaningful way.

Paris is such a rich and wonderful place, full of quirks and customs, beauty and ugliness.  Instead of being a major character, Paris was glossed over.  For all of the narrator's rhapsodizing about the city, she operates as if it doesn't exist.  Her daughters live, love, and thrive in Paris, so I really wish we could have heard from them.  Hearing about what high school is like in Paris would have been better than whining and pining in a bookstore.  Heck, reading a list of books available for purchase in the bookshop would have been better than listening to the narrator moaning about her husband.

I didn't finish the last half of the book because, at that point, it became painfully clear that I wasn't going to get what I wanted from the book - namely the experience of living in Paris, being intrigued by a disappearance, and someone telling me about the joys of street crepes.

I love street crepes.