October 31, 1990
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.