I have Annick,  my cousin’s wife, to thank for suggesting that I read The Orchid Shroud and introducing me to the mysteries of Michelle Wan. Annick and her family are planning a trip to the Dordogne this summer and she decided to prepare by reading some books set in the area.  What a great idea!  I do the same before heading off somewhere new, which is how I discovered the short stories in Iron Balloons (for a trip to Jamaica) and the wonderful mysteries of Donna Leon, like Wilful Misbehaviour (to relive past times spent in Venice), as well as many other authors and books.   Reading a book set in a foreign locale offers a preview of what may be in store for you on your visit, a feeling for its distinct rhythms, and a taste for the  local way of doing things.

Doing things the Dordogne-way sounds pretty good after reading The Orchid Shroud, as long as I could leave out the werewolves, infanticide, blackmailing, and boar hunting that goes on in the mystery. Leave to me the champagne picnics, the wineries, the pastries and breads and Bergerac Reds, the rolling valleys and mellow yellow buildings, and the lovely summer weather, and I could be quite satisfied.

Wan does a lovely job displaying the Dordogne in all its gastronomic, oenophiliac, and atmospheric beauty.  She does a killer job with all the gruesome stuff as well, and with the twisting, hairpin-turning plot of deception, greed, inheritance.  She throws in echoes of the French Resistance and even earlier echoes of Huguenot hunting, plus develops a wonderful subtext about werewolfery, with all its greed and savagery and wildness.

I liked this book a lot and I will definitely read the first in Wan’s series, The Deadly Slipper (oh, yes, orchids play a part in all her books, not the same way as they did for Nero Wolfe, but to very great effect), and I look forward to new Wan mysteries coming out.

For those of you looking to read another good mystery set in the Dordogne,  I loved the Aaron Elkins book Skeleton Dance (and all his other books featuring bone detective Gideon Oliver).