Elizabeth Adler, There's Something About St. Tropez

TV star of Mac Reilly's Malibu Mysteries, real private investigator Mac Reilly and his partner-girlfriend Sunny Alvarez have rented Chez La Violette villa in St. Tropez. They plan to spend the month of June there along with their seven-pawed two canines.

Sunny arrives at their exclusive French Riviera house first only to find they have been conned. Others are as irate perhaps more so at being swindled too. Texas rancher widower Billy Bashford was looking forward to alone vacation time with his eight-year-old daughter, Laureen, and Belinda Lord estranged wife of a Russian mobster needed time to regroup. Mac and Sunny and Mac take a room at the nearby Hotel des Reves. They soon protect Belinda from her husband and get involved with local art thefts while Laureen makes friends with a homeless eleven year old boy.

The sequel to ONE OF THOSE MALIBU NIGHTS is an entertaining tale in which the prime plot is fun but by the book while the two children subplot brings needed angst to freshen up story line. The cast is solid especially the two American sleuths. However, the plot is thin yet no one will care as the Malibu duet take the French Riviera once they settle in their hotel of dreams.

Harriet Klausner