Murder in the South of France / Susan Kiernan-Lewis / 341 pages

Englishman Roger Bentley's "job is to see opportunities where other see utilitarian necessity or fate."  He concocted a scheme to defraud a wealthy American family of fifty thousand euros, claiming that the daughter/sister, Elise , a former drug user estranged from the family, was dead and that she had left a child behind who was currently in the hands of the despicable father, Gerard Dubois.  Maggie Newberry travels to Paris to identify the body and reclaim her niece, Nicole.  The body is so badly beaten that Maggie's ID's her sister by her charm bracelet.  All is not as it seems, however.  Gerard Debois is even more despicable than at first believed.  This page-turner delights with plot twists and a sprinkling of French phrases and places, but I found Laurent Dernier and Maggie's commitment to him to be a bit unbelievable.