M.L Longworth’s books are under appreciated in my opinion! I love the series and recommend them as very good reads for the beautiful setting in Aix-en-Provence, the relationships and the food! It’s a great series to read while waiting for the next Gamache. I really enjoyed them. They are like Three Pines, if Gamache was snotty but with a clawing inner need for a soulmate, and if Jean-Guy was snide and a little envious as he was in the early books, and if Three Pines was a French town. There is a very lovable down-to-earth female ex-girlfriend who I love and provides a different perspective from the detectives and Verlaques’ guy friends.