Peter Mayle

The author introduces readers to some of the interesting characters found in the region of Provence--a disgraced gendarme, a gourmet in a track suit, and a man whose ambition is to make toads sing.

Bennett is an English expatriate living in France with a champagne taste and a beer bankroll. Happy-go-lucky and a bit roguish, he places an ad in the International Herald Tribune offering his services — any services. He pursues a response from a wealthy Englishman named Julian Poe who has developed a means of producing truffles and is close to cornering the immensely lucrative truffle market. Bennett signs on and finds himself in Monaco,...

They had been there often as tourists. They had cherished the dream of someday living all year under the Provencal sun. And suddenly it happened. Here is the month-by month account of the charms and frustrations that Peter Mayle and his wife -- and their two large dogs -- experience their first year in the remote country of the Luberon restoring a two-centuries-old stone farmhouse that they bought on sight. From coping in January with the first mistral,...

When a Riviera socialite's diamonds are stolen--the latest in a string of seemingly unconnected but ever-more-audacious jewelry heists across France--Elena flies in to investigate the insurance claim. It's a trip she's more than happy to make, as it gives her a chance to meet up with old friends in Marseille--and, particularly, with Sam. Once reunited, Sam isn't entirely distracted by domestic matters. In the pattern of these "perfect crimes" he's...

"The beloved author at his effervescent best: his master sleuth, Sam Levitt, eating, drinking, and romancing his way through the South of France--even as he investigates a case of deadly intrigue among the Riviera's jet set. Billionaire Francis Reboul is taking in the view at his coastal estate, awaiting the arrival of vacationing friends Sam Levitt and Elena Morales, when he spies a massive yacht whose passengers seem a little too interested in his...

At work in the south of France on the magazine "Decorating Quarterly," photographer Andre Kelly stumbles upon a plumber loading a Cezanne into his truck and sets off on the trail of the culinary delights of France in pursuit of a wicked art scam.

The bestsellling author of A Year in Provence and Hotel Pastis now surveys his territory from a differnt vantage point: the all-fours perspective of his dog, Boy--"a dog whose personality is made up of equal parts Boswell and Dr. Johnson, Mencken and A.A. Milne" (Chicago Sun-Times). Enhanced by 59 splendidly whimsical drawings by Edward Koren.