Review by Sharon Marchisello
Details at the end of this post on how to enter to win an ebook copy of the book and a link to pre-order it.
Spirits of the Law is the third book in Elle Jauffret’s Suddenly French mystery series featuring former attorney-turned-chef and amateur sleuth Claire Fontaine. I have not read the other books in the series, but the author provided enough backstory for a new reader to become familiar with the characters and enjoy the mystery.
The story is told in close third person from Claire’s point of view. In a previous book, she suffered an injury that left her with an unusual speech disorder: foreign accent syndrome. Although she’s not French, she speaks with a French accent, which leads to some humorous encounters. And sometimes, she uses it to her advantage.
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| Image Source Level Best Books |
When the story opens, Claire is preparing to cater a Halloween Ball at LaMaison, a cliffside mansion and vineyard that belonged to Caper Cove’s founder, Victor Venturier. After Victor died, his wife, Melissandre, married a Japanese man. California’s 1913 Alien Land Laws forbade immigrants from becoming citizens or owning property. Furthermore, because she’d married an immigrant, Melissandre’s citizenship was revoked and her property seized.
LaMaison has been owned ever since by the Blackwell family. The last owner, James Blackwell, haunted by the ghost of Melissandre, attempts to right the wrongs of his ancestors by searching for an heir to the Venturier estate and offering a two-million-dollar reward. When he dies, his will specifies that if a Venturier heir wasn’t found within a year of his death, the property would remain in the Blackwell family. Needless to say, the surviving Blackwells are working hard to ensure an heir is never found. They plan to sell the property to a greedy developer.
While Claire is preparing for the banquet, she witnesses a car drive off a cliff. She rushes to the wreckage to help, but the driver is dead. In fact, it appears the woman was already dead when her car went over the cliff, and the cause of death may be murder. Claire recognizes the victim as a local psychic named Starlight.
After three books, Claire has developed a reputation for solving murder mysteries, so the police now take her seriously and treat her as part of the team. It doesn’t hurt that the police chief is an old friend from high school, one of the detectives is her roommate, and the medical examiner has a crush on her.
There’s a secondary mystery which I suspect began in earlier books: Claire’s older sister, Aurora, vanished without a trace twenty years ago. In this book, that mystery is resolved.
The author doesn’t shy away from commenting on inequality, especially for women and immigrants, via her characters' voices and the story’s narrative. She does an excellent job depicting a realistic setting and giving readers a history lesson along with a satisfying mystery.
To enter to win an ebook copy of Spirits of the Law, simply email KRL at krlcontests@gmail[dot]com by replacing the [dot] with a period, and with the subject line "spirits,” or comment on this article. A winner will be chosen November 7, 2026. US residents only and you must be 18 or older to enter. If entering via email please include your mailing address in case you win. If entering via comment please include your email address so we can contact you. You can read our privacy statement here if you like.Check out other mystery articles, reviews, book giveaways & mystery short stories in our mystery section in Kings River Life and in our mystery category here on KRL News & Reviews. And join our mystery Facebook group to keep up with everything mystery we post, and have a chance at some extra giveaways. And check out our new mystery podcast which features mystery short stories and first chapters read by local actors!
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Disclosure: This post contains links to an affiliate program, for which we receive a few cents if you make purchases. KRL also receives free copies of most of the books that it reviews, that are provided in exchange for an honest review of the book.Sharon Marchisello is the author of the DeeLo Myer cat rescue mysteries published by Level Best Books, starting with Trap, Neuter, Die (2024). Her other mysteries were published by Sunbury Press: Going Home (2014), Secrets of the Galapagos (2019), and Murder at Leisure Dreams – Galapagos (2025). She has also written a nonfiction book (Live Well, Grow Wealth - 2018), travel articles, and short stories. She earned Master’s in Professional Writing from the University of Southern California and is active in Sisters in Crime. Sharon lives in Peachtree City, GA, where she does volunteer work for the Fayette Humane Society and the Fayette County Master Gardeners.
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