Mademoiselle Le Sleuth

Mademoiselle le Sleuth is the story you’re looking for if you want a fun mystery with quirky characters. I loved this book from the very first page to the last.

Sarah is an American actress who has been hired to perform in a Parisian play called “Don’t Look Now.” In the opening scene, Sarah’s sister, Vicki, and four-year-old niece, Miranda, are attending Sarah’s play when suddenly there is a raucous. Already cursed by one death, everyone had figured the play must go on, and so it did! But now, a second death? A murder?

Although there is a book that comes before this one in which Sarah and Miranda are kidnapped, Mademoiselle Le Sleuth does well as a standalone, and the characters and plot are not difficult to follow. The author’s voice shifts back and forth from silly to posh, but I feel this gives the book a special aura. Readers will feel they are in the heart of Paris as Sarah and Miranda visit various French sites such as The American Library, FNAC, the Musée d’Orsay, the Skeleton Zoo, and the Jardin des Plantes. This book is a whirlwind of adventure as Sarah tries to figure out who the killer is.

From ornate vases of flowers to a Mackintosh raincoat, the clues keep coming, and Sarah and Miranda keep thinking they know who the culprit is. And who are the men with weird hats? Anyone who speaks to Sarah or Miranda becomes a suspect. Readers will love being taken for a ride as the duo even ends up in the redlight district. Although Sarah’s French is not very good, even she can translate what l’Odyssex might mean. One part that made me laugh was when Sarah says, “This kid is truly annoying…the detective in the talons can have her.” In fact, there were several instances in the book where Sarah calls Miranda “the kid,” and this struck me as funny because it was so casual compared to the wording of the rest of the book.

Mademoiselle Le Sleuth does a fantastic job of creating a mystery that two “by-accident” detectives solve. I look forward to picking up a copy of the previous Theasa Tuohy book, The Woman at la Gare de l’Est, and hope there is more to come in this series. Brilliantly written, with a gorgeous setting and colorful characters, readers will simply adore Mademoiselle Le Sleuth!