MONSIEUR PAMPLEMOUSSE RESTS HIS CASE

A return for the bumbling, inept Monsieur Pamplemousse, restaurant reviewer for Le Guide, who this time out must solve the poisoning death of an American mystery writer, one of the six attendees at a gala Vichy dinner re-creating an elaborate Alexandre Dumas menu. Party organizer and food-magazine publisher Mrs. Van Dorman takes a shower (for reasons too silly to mention) in Pamplemousse's room; four-legged sidekick Potatoes Frites noshes, as usual, on this and that; and Pamplemousse, after doffing his D'Artagnon costume (don't ask), retranslates the mystery writer's dying words, then bids adieu to all--including a lover spurned by both him and the corpse. A more appropriate title would have been Murder as a Side Dish, since no one--not even the author, it seems--is terribly interested in it. Some laughs at the expense of series writers (the gourmet detective, the classical-music sleuth, etc.), some tasty food selections, but, overall, very thin.