Monsieur Pamplemousse Investigates

by Michael Bond

Overview

The annual launch of Le Guide, France's most prestigious restaurant companion, is always a red-letter day for its publishers. The year the Director has a particularly momentous announcement to make: the inauguration of the Golden Shock Pot Lid, a unique commendation to the best restaurant in France, awarded not according to the vagaries of mere human inspectors such as Monsieur Pamplemousse, but by the immaculate calculations of Le Guide's latest acquisition - a Poulanc DB23 mainframe computer. However, there is many a slip 'twixt Stock Pot and Lid and when the ceremonial 'Entry' button is pressed the resultant print-out is a travesty of everything Le Guide stands for. All too clearly, someone has nobbled the programme. With only days to go before publication, it falls to Monsieur Pamplemousse to investigate the mystery. Accompanied by his ever-faithful hound Pommes Frites, he is soon up to his ears in a bizarre world of bytes, rams and nibbles, and pitted against a foe who has but one aim in life: to heap disgrace on Le Guide, and in so doing bring about the downfall of Monsieur le Directeur himself...

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780749018818
Publisher:	Allison & Busby, Limited
Publication date:	12/15/2016
Series:	Monsieur Pamplemousse Series , #6
Sold by:	Bookwire
Format:	eBook
Pages:	207
File size:	789 KB

About the Author

Michael Bond was born in Newbury in 1926. In 1958, his first children's book, A Bear Called Paddington was published. In 1983 he started writing adult fiction, with his first tale featuring Monsieur Pamplemousse and his faithful bloodhound, Pommes Frites. He sadly passed away in June 2017.
Michael Bond was born in Newbury in 1926. In 1958, his first children's book, A Bear Called Paddington was published. In 1983 he started writing adult fiction, with his first tale featuring Monsieur Pamplemousse and his faithful bloodhound, Pommes Frites. He sadly passed away in June 2017.

Editorial Reviews

Returning from Monsieur Pamplemousse Aloft , the eccentric flatfoot/gourmand and Pommes Frites, his clever dog, team up to sniff out clues when a not-so-merry prankster sabotages Le Guide , ``France's oldest and most respected food guide.'' The fictional food bible's staff finds itself in a stew when a false obituary of the director appears in the local paper on the very day the final manuscript--the first edition produced by computer, with influential new restaurant ratings--is to be unveiled at a company celebration. There the director faints dead away when he finds the manuscript completely botched, riddled with missratings and erroneous reviews. Jovial food maven Aristide Pamplemousse, an Inspector Clousseau-meets-Hercule Poirot type, smells something foul when the company's accountant--the sole employee other than the director with access to the computer password--cannot be found. British writer Bond, also the creator of the Paddington Bear children's series, smartly sidesteps cliches about computer crime, instead devising an old-fashioned puzzle with immensely pleasurable characters and pervasive comic zest. (Dec.)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly