This is a great series. It makes you want to live in France and drink wine in small cafés instead of whatever mundane thing you are currently doing ( )

I love this series. While Sam and Elena spend their vacations in Marseille with their friend Francis Reboul, Francis finds himself under the pressure of a dubious Russian, who lies in front of Marseille with his luxury yacht and has decided to buy Reboul's property. Francis does not want to sell, so the Russian is always brazen and ready to let Francis get killed. Of course, far from him and therefore he has chosen Corsica, unaware that Francis and Sam have very good friends there in the underground.
Great and exciting written with a lot of good food that made my mouth water. ( )

This latest novel from Peter Mayle, the author of A Year in Provence, is a light frolic of suspense with the local billionaires along the Mediterranean coast near Marseilles. The author tells the readers from the onset who the victim is and who wants to kill him, but this knowledge doesn't lessen the tension.
Billionaire Francis Reboul is enjoying his palatial coastal estate, Le Pharo, and entertaining his guests, Sam Levitt and Elena Morales from Los Angeles. The tranquility of their quiet lunch and pleasure in Reboul's fine wine cellar is interrupted when a helicopter flies overhead and swoops low enough for them to see the binoculars that are trained on the estate and its occupants. Reboul soon discovers through his contacts in the Marseilles police that a Russian billionaire with a less than savory past has sailed into harbor on his yacht The Caspian Queen, and has his eye on Le Pharo. He has made up his mind to own Reboul's estate, whether Reboul wants to sell or not.
When Reboul refuses the offer to sell at any price, Oleg Vronsky makes plans to eliminate Reboul, as he has down before when some person stood in the way of something he wanted. Sam and Elena discover that Vronsky is smart as well as ruthless. He always manages to be far away when a rival is killed.
The action moves to the island of Corsica, where loyalties are strong and people know who their friends and enemies are. While Vronsky has taken off to Paris, he has left behind a couple of Russian thugs, but they are no match for a the Corsican mafia types who protect their own.
I read this novel in a day and a half, and enjoyed every moment of an escape into the world of champagne for lunch and a snack of escargot and caviar. It was a very pleasant diversion from reality. (As published in Suspense Magazine) ( )

As an addition to Mayle's work, this one was utterly phoned in. Don't bother. ( )

The Corsican Caper is more in line with being a short novella than a true novel. Peter Mayle's super sleuth, Sam Levitt and his friend ( Reboul ) are somewhat interesting but, I only gave it a 3 star rating. This would be a good quick beach afternoons read, but, not for a long winter's night reading entertainment ......... ( )