The Hotel Riviera

The Hotel Riviera is Elizabeth Adler’s 2003 South-of-France-set romantic mystery, with a sharper plot engine than her usual expatriate-romance template. Lola Laforet, an American chef who runs the small Hotel Riviera in Saint-Tropez, has just been left by her French husband Patrick, who has also taken a substantial collection of jewels with him. A detective named Jack Farrar arrives nominally on holiday and quickly turns out to be investigating Patrick’s disappearance for clients who would like the jewels back.

The Cote d’Azur setting is rendered with Adler’s usual sensory care: morning markets, the smell of bouillabaisse from Lola’s kitchen, the way the Mediterranean light changes by five o’clock. The mystery is the lighter part of the book; the cooking and the hotel-management material is the meatier part. Lola is a fully realized cook-narrator, the supporting cast (Jack, Lola’s American friends Bud and Suzy, the local gendarme) carries weight, and the food writing is some of Adler’s best.

Best for readers who liked Frances Mayes or Peter Mayle and want a slightly more plotted version, and for anyone looking for books like The Hotel Riviera that mix Provençal atmosphere with a working mystery. Three stars, with the cooking material earning the extra half.