Folly du Jour

Folly du Jour is the last of the Commander Joe Sandilands novels by Barbara Cleverly before she decided to commence a new series featuring an archeologist. I am sure that all her readers can appreciate her desire to try something new after writing seven of her superior Sandilands detective stories but I am also sure that they hope that she will return to chronicling his career in the near future. In Folly du Jour Sandilands flies to Paris to attend an Interpol conference when he is caught up in a spectacular murder commited in a box at the Follies Bergere. The victim is an English Baronet and former officer in the Indian Army and the accused is his old friend and mentor from his time in India, Sir George Jardine. Initialy reluctant to become involved Sandilands is shocked to see Sir George has been roughly handled by the French detective in charge of the case and annoyed when his efforts to help Sir George are frustrated by his reluctance to give Joe the full story of what happened. This is just the start of a well wrought narrative, lubricated by a boxful of red herrings, that kept this reader guessing until the end. Miss Cleverly conveys a wonderful sense of Paris in the 1920's and even introducing famous characters such as Charles Lindbergh and Josephine Baker is accomplished smoothly. It is not often that a writer can resist flourishing the amount of background research that Miss Clverly has obviously done and allow it to flow as a natural part of the narrative but manage it she does. Another good 'un.