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Twelve warm, murder-free stories follow Pistou and Le Livre Vagabond through a year of small adventures along the canals of southern France.
Pistou has opinions about everything. Fish, twine, lavender, strangers, the weather, and the precise moment a croissant becomes community property. In twelve stories — one for each month — Elodie Marais's opinionated cat navigates the canals of southern France aboard Le Livre Vagabond, the floating bookshop that is both his kingdom and his responsibility. From the markets of Avignon in spring to the Christmas carols of Strasbourg in December, Pistou supervises, investigates, rearranges, and occasionally saves the day — always on his own terms. Along the way there are lavender heists, cassoulet thefts, water jousting, midnight jam-making, paper boat regattas, a blue umbrella in Collioure, grape harvests in the Minervois, and a clockmaker's ginger cat in Colmar. Every chapter brings a new town, a new small adventure, and a recipe worth trying at home. No murders. No mysteries. Just a cat, a barge, a woman who talks to both of them, and a year of small, extraordinary days on the water. A standalone companion to the Canal & Croissant Mysteries. No prior reading required — but readers of A Murder Afloat in Avignon will find a familiar deck, a familiar cat, and a great deal more croissant.
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Heat held the day like a memory that refused to let go. Even at night, the Canal du Midi wore a sheen, pewter under the slow sky. Cicadas pulsed from the plane trees, a stitched rhythm over the hush of water. From the deck of Le Livre Vagabond, Pistou lifted his head and heard it: the soft bloop-bloop of simmering somewhere past Écluse 27, a low, insistent bubble.
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Audio sample in preparationCozy murder mystery.
Pistou has opinions about everything. Fish, twine, lavender, strangers, the weather, and the precise moment a croissant becomes community property.
In twelve stories — one for each month — Elodie Marais's opinionated ginger cat navigates the canals of southern France aboard Le Livre Vagabond, the floating bookshop that is both his kingdom and his responsibility. From the markets of Avignon in spring to the Christmas carols of Strasbourg in December, Pistou supervises, investigates, rearranges, and occasionally saves the day — always on his own terms.
Along the way there are lavender heists, cassoulet thefts, water jousting, midnight jam-making, paper boat regattas, a blue umbrella in Collioure, grape harvests in the Minervois, and a clockmaker's ginger cat in Colmar. Every chapter brings a new town, a new small adventure, and a recipe worth trying at home.
No murders. No mysteries. Just a cat, a barge, a woman who talks to both of them, and a year of small, extraordinary days on the water.
A standalone companion to the Canal & Croissant Mysteries. No prior reading required — but readers of A Murder Afloat in Avignon will find a familiar deck, a familiar cat, and a great deal more croissant.
Heat held the day like a memory that refused to let go. Even at night, the Canal du Midi wore a sheen, pewter under the slow sky. Cicadas pulsed from the plane trees, a stitched rhythm over the hush of water. From the deck of Le Livre Vagabond, Pistou lifted his head and heard it: the soft bloop-bloop of simmering somewhere past Écluse 27, a low, insistent bubble.
Elodie set down her pen. “Hear that?” she asked no one in particular and entirely to Pistou. “Copper and sugar.” She lit the storm lantern, its glass winking apricot as if the moon had chosen to sit inside it for a moment. “You’re right—we should visit.”
Pistou stepped onto the towpath with the self-possession of someone certain he was expected. The lantern’s pool of light moved with them, catching pale moths and the ragged edge of wild thyme that grew in the cracks. Above the black tree crowns, the moon was rising—round and tender, the color of an apricot’s skin.
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