All Roads to Sospel

Inspector Littlejohn #55

A detective mystery set in France. A British travel group is stranded in France when the tour conductor is shot, and their bus driver is accused of murder. Luckily, Inspector Littlejohn, holidaying nearby, is on hand, both to interpret the annoyed tourists and to solve a baffling double crime in tandem with his French colleague. Vacationing in the south of France, Chief Superintendent Littlejohn is asked by French officials to help find the murderer of Peter Butterfield--a shady, loud-mouthed English tourguide who's been found shot on a dangerous mountain road near the town of Sospel. Prime suspect: tour bus driver Sid Bennion, who has disappeared (leaving behind a busload of resentful tourists) and reappears just as another body is found--that of Lil, a girl whose favors both Butterfield and Bennion were enjoying. But Littlejohn's investigation, with help from an old Sûreté pal, focuses mostly on the Cozy Tours tycoon: London Financier Wilfrid Fenner, a sinister type complete with mute bodyguard and venerable Rolls-Royce. [Kirkus Reviews]