France, 1926, and after the scandalous events of A Most Efficient Murder, Lord Unsworth and family have decamped to the French Riviera for a but of piece and quiet. But soon Fanny has joined a community of writers, artists and anarchists, and Arthur is entangled in poker debts with the mysterious Count Scarlioni.

But more worryingly, Lord Unsworth has been reunited with an old flame, Lady Rosaline Barrett De Marchi, a collector of art and other things, but she wants to enlist Unsworth’s secretary, the efficient Mr Quayle, to help protect her. Having said that, he doesn’t do a wonderful job as she is soon found dead in her chateau. Can Quayle find the killer, save the family from scandal – again – and catch a notorious jewel thief?

It’s been a while since I read the first one in this series – I’ll be honest, I’d all but forgotten about it, but when Amazon shoved the second one into my recommended list, I figured that I should give it a go. I did really like the first one, after all.

But I have a question, dear reader. From Hercule Poirot himself, in The Murder On The Links and The Mystery Of The Blue Train, to every eighties sitcom when the team all clear off to sunnier climes, the change of setting rarely works.

The problem here for me, though, wasn’t the location, it’s just that I didn’t warm to any of the suspects. They’re all up to something that Quayle needs to sort out, but I feel there’s a need to like some suspects so that you care as to whether there are or aren’t guilty. It resembled a tad my recent read Crime De Luxe which had a similar problem.

Having said that, there is a lot more going on in this one, and the mystery is pretty well-plotted, with clues and all that. Definitely an A for effort and I’ll put Book 3, A Terribly Savage Killing, on my to-read list.