Ariel Shepard had only dreamy ideas of what living in a château would be like until, after her husband’s sudden death, she found out he had purchased one for her as a gift after they stumbled upon it during their honeymoon. Moving from Manhattan to a small town in Burgundy was enough of a challenge, but restoring a shabby if lovely mansion was a high mountain to climb. Here’s a day in the life of a brave, 30-something widow whose otherwise excellent French does not include hardware, plumbing, and masonry vocabulary!

Dear diary,

Tony serves strong delicious espresso drinks and Regine collects the boulangerie’s super-fresh, flaky croissants first thing in the morning, so it’s easy to come downstairs from the apartment I rent over the café to start my day and write my “to do” list. If I want to live in my château some day, the list will be almost endless. Today it has to include:

Ask Andre, the plumber, what precisely he means when he says that the “water closet” must be draining somewhere, but it definitely isn’t going through the pipe that was installed for that purpose Do I want to know? Note: Look up “drainage pipe” in my Larousse French-English dictionary.

**

See if I can get Raoul, a man of little talk but much attitude, to tell me when he might get around to stabilizing the broad stone steps that lead to my front door? Preferably before someone falls and decides to sue me! Note: Look up “lawsuit” in the Larousse.

**

Visit Katherine in Reigny-sur-Canne, because I’ve promised to look at her paintings. I also want to see if my new friend, her neighbor and fellow crime-solver Pippa, really has a contract to write a second thriller. Will that just encourage Pippa to throw herself into every little scandal in the neighborhood?

**

Try and get darling Jean-Paul to be more specific about the cost of restoring every old window frame on all four levels of the château. And, is he still promising he can save all the lovely, ripply glass panes in the process? Very expensive, I am guessing. Trop cher? Too expensive – a phrase I’m becoming too familiar with, alas!

**

Call the Sorbonne professor Katherine recommended to ask her to research the history of Château de Champs-sur-Serein. My château certainly has an elegant-sounding name, although I think it just means fields next to the Serein River.

There’s so much to do, but if I add more to today’s list, I’m afraid I’ll just go back upstirs and put my head under the duvet until the mouth-watering aromas of Regine’s café offerings lure me out. I wonder what she’ll be inspired to cook for the café patrons today – coq au vin if we’re lucky. My darling Dan would be amazed to see everything involved in “fixing up” such a historic old place. I know he meant to have it done for me, overseen by the suave notaire he hired but who I don’t think I can afford, although Monsieur Brunet has stopped by several times and offered his assistance.

Oh well, onward! Or as they say in French, En avent!

Murder Visits a French Village, A Château in Burgundy Mystery Book #1
Genre: Traditional
Release: March 2023
Format: Print, Digital
Purchase Link

Ariel Shepard is devastated by the sudden loss of her husband, but nothing could have prepared her for inheriting the rundown French château they’d visited on their honeymoon four years ago. With finances tight she has no choice but to swap her Manhattan apartment and city lifestyle for a renovation project in a peaceful French village.

When Ariel hires an expert to help her uncover the legacy of her beautiful ruin, life only becomes more complicated. Christiane, the historian, is found dead in the moat, and although the local police aren’t suspicious, Ariel is. She joins two other ex-pats, Pippa and Katherine, to investigate, but with plenty of workmen – and errant tools – around the château, many people had the means, but who had the motive? Why would anyone want to kill a historian?

Ariel begins to suspect that her French village life will be anything but peaceful! Can she solve the suspicious murder and make her château in Burgundy the perfect new home?

About the author
Susan C. Shea is a member of Norcal’s Sisters in Crime, a former member of the SinC national board, and a member of MWA. She’s the author of two series, the French village mysteries, and the Dani O’Rourke Mysteries. She’s on the faculty of the Book Passage Mystery Writers Conference and blogs on 7 Criminal Minds. Visit Susan at susancshea.com.

All comments are welcomed.