Monsieur Pamplemousse The Secret Mission

Critic/sleuth Pamplemousse has a lot on his plate when he investigates a terrible and strangely popular hotel.

Bond's charming food inspector and part time detective has a tricky task in sampling the appalling cuisine of the Hotel du Paradis. Tricky due to the fact that it's run by his Director's formidable aunt, and intriguing given the tales of the effect of the hotel's food on it's gues

Monsieur Pamplemousse is looking forward to a well-earned break in the South of France courtesy of his employer - all he has to do is collect a piece of artwork for Le Guide's Director. But when his contact fails to show and a dismembered body is washed up outside the hotel, the holiday mood evaporates. As Pamplemousse struggles with the case (and with modern technology) his ever-faithful bloodhound Pommes Frites is on hand offering proof why, during his time with the Paris Sûreté, he was one of their top sniffer dogs.

When Monsieur Pamplemousse got an urgent summons from the Director of Le Guide, he knew that there was trouble at the top. His faithful canine companion, Pommes Frites, noticed it too. But neither of them expected that the trouble would involve a nun who was in the habit of joining the Mile High Club or a full-scale smear campaign targeting Le Guide's credibility as France's première restaurant and hotel guide. Someone has been spreading worrying rumours among the staff and infiltrating the company files - awarding hotels prizes for bedbugs and praising egg and chips signature dishes. Even Pommes Frites has become a victim of the assault. It could all spell the ruin for Le Guide, but Pamplemousse is on the case.

Ever eager to expand the influence of France's leading gastronomic guidebook beyond her native shores, the Director of Le Guide has been cultivating a useful transatlantic connection in the form of a certain Mrs Van Dorman. Ex-parfumier, presently a publishing magnate and, in her spare time,a fan of private-eye novels, Mrs Van Dorman has deserted the relative safety of La Grande Pomme to accompany a group of crime writers to a recreation in Vichy of a banquet given by Alexandre Dumas before he started work on yet another sequel to The Three Musketeers. And who better to escort her than Monsieur Pamplemousse, Surete sleuth turned top-rank gourmet? Monsieur Pamplemousse himself could think of a number of more suitable candidates, especially when it becomes apparent that the assignment involves a grand entry dressed as d'Artagnan, mounted on an uncomfortably rampant black charger. But when cyanide turns out to be a surprise ingredient of the murder tour it is soon clear that Monsieur Pamplemousse - aided by the unerring nose of bloodhound Pommes Frites - is the only man for the job...

The Channel Tunnel is all very well as a mundane means of crossing La Manche but there are those who still believe in airships as the luxury transport of the future. In a rare spirit of entente cordiale, the governments of France and Britain agree to a trial run, and plan a grand inaugural flight involving their heads of state. But - quelle horreur! - the organisers have overlooked the most important part of every French occasion - the food and the wine. Honour is at stake and a desperate call for help goes out to Le Guide, France's most distinguished gastronomic publication. Monsieur Pamplemousse, ex Surete sleuth turned food inspector, is called on to rectify matters.The assignment gets off to an inauspicious start. As he nears the launch site in Brittany, Monsieur Pamplemousse's 2CV is run off the road by a carful of decidedly ungodly nuns. And the lady trapeze artist who rescues him clearly has something other than the evening's acrobatics preying on her mind. When an old friend cuts him dead, he suspects the worst...

According to the Director of Le Guide, France's premier gastronomic companion, it is high time his inspectors moved with the times and opened their ranks to the fairer sex. And who better to oversee their initiation than Monsieur Pamplemousse?However, when the Director, normally a model of rectitude, hints that on no account must the trainee be allowed to make the grade, Monsieur Pamplemousse is suitably outraged. His indignation lasts only until he hears her name. The Director is right. The lady in question is known to be utterly unscrupulous in the use of her considerable physical charms and her permanent engagement would cause unrest amongst the other inspectors, not to mention their wives.But there are other problems. Having blackmailed the Director into taking her on, why is she so insistent on staying at the Hotel des Dunes; an out-of-the-way establishment in the Gironde, unremarked even by the Camping Club of France, let alone by any of the major guides? Certainly not because of the food, as Monsieur Pamplemousse dejectedly discovers.And why, having created a scene because she didn't get the room she wanted, should one of her first acts be to photograph the dismal interior of the hotel?When Monsieur Pamplemousse's ever-faithful bloodhound Pommes Frites is seen ambling back to the hotel carrying a suspiciously large jambon, Monsieur Pamplemousse realises that once again he must stand firm against the forces of crime...