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Joe Sandilands #7

Folly Du Jour

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Praise for Barbara

“Spectacular and dashing, spellbinding.”— The New York Times Book Review

“Smashing . . . marvelously evoked.”— Chicago Tribune

“A historical mystery that has just about everything.”— Denver Post

“Cleverly maintains the high standards set by earlier Sandilands tales, blending a sophisticated whodunit with full-blooded characters and a revealing look at her chosen time and place.”— Publishers Weekly (starred)

“Atmospheric . . . intricately plotted.”— Kirkus Reviews

“Evocative narrative, sensitive characterizations, artful dialogue, and masterly plottings.”— Library Journal

“Cleverly combines a colorful historical setting with a complex plot and well-developed characters.”— Booklist

“Delightfully surprising.”— Mystery News

This seventh book in the Joe Sandilands murder mystery series is set at the Folies-Bergère, Paris, in December 1926. Joe hurries to the assistance of an old friend who has been arrested for murder there. In a cell at the Quai des Orfèvres, he meets with Sir George Jardine, still in the evening clothes stained with the blood of the dead man. The only other witness, a blonde who was sharing the victim’s box, has vanished. Joe receives assistance from an entirely unexpected quarter—Francine, a young usherette, clawing her way into the world of the Paris Music Hall. She becomes Joe’s guide through this treacherous place, where Joe is sure the killer is lurking.

Barbara Cleverly was born in northern England, graduated from Durham University, and now lives in Cambridge. Her debut, The Last Kashmiri Rose , was a New York Times Notable Book of 2002.

288 pages, Hardcover

First published September 27, 2007

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About the author

Barbara Cleverly

45 books230 followers
Barbara Cleverly was born in the north of England and is a graduate of Durham University. A former teacher, she has spent her working life in Cambridgeshire and Suffolk; she now lives in Cambridge. She has one son and five step-children.

Her Joe Sandilands series of books set against the background of the British Raj was inspired by the contents of a battered old tin trunk that she found in her attic. Out of it spilled two centuries of memories of a family – especially a great uncle who spent a lot of time in India – whose exploits and achievements marched in time with the flowering of the British Empire.

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5 stars
132 (16%)
4 stars
310 (39%)
3 stars
273 (35%)
2 stars
48 (6%)
1 star
17 (2%)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 77 reviews
Profile Image for Avid Series Reader.
1,692 reviews1 follower
October 23, 2021
Folly du Jour by Barbara Cleverly is the 7th book of the Joe Sandilands historical mystery series, set in May 1927 in Paris. Joe is on his way to France to attend an Interpol conference. His flight lands mere minutes before an historical event.

An Englishman is murdered at the Folies Bergere in Paris where star actress/dancer/singer Josephine Baker performs. Former British diplomat Sir George Jardine discovers the corpse, and is promptly arrested for the crime. Of course Scotland Yard wants Commander Joe Sandilands to step into the case. Upon his arrival at police headquarters, Joe discovers to his horror that the over-zealous, egotistical Chief Inspector Fourier uses harsh interrogation methods. To boost his career, Fourier gleefully plans to send George to the guillotine, with maximum publicity.

Joe teams with Jean-Philippe Bonnefoye of the Police Judiciaire squad, not only to find the true killer, but to outwit Fourier's evil intentions. Young Georges Simenon assists their investigation, as a crime writer (familiar with underworld gangs in Paris) and a devotee of Josephine Baker.

A well paced, delightful mixture of suspense and treachery with surprise plot twists. The most enjoyable and satisfying of Joe's adventures since the fascinating early books of the series that began in India.
Profile Image for Nolan.
45 reviews
September 3, 2024
Book sucked so bad I didn’t even understand what I was reading half the time
Profile Image for Nikki.
2,003 reviews53 followers
October 17, 2008
Joe Sandilands and Sir George Jardine are back, and they're in Paris. It's 1927, and numerous cultural icons of the time are present -- from Lindbergh to Josephine Baker to a young crime reporter named Simenon. Joe, in Paris for an Interpol conference, is brought in to help when Sir George, recently retired and thus no longer protected by diplomatic immunity, is found standing over the body of a fellow Englishman in a box at the theater where Baker is performing.

The corpse was that of a thoroughly nasty character -- someone who "needed killing" -- and as Joe and his French colleague, Bonnefoye, work to clear Sir George (who really didn't do it, though he might have liked to), they begin to see a pattern in a string of unsolved murders. A character from one of the earlier Sandilands novels turns up with exciting results, and the conclusion is surprising and unexpected, if not completely believable.

Barbara Cleverly's Joe Sandilands novels, although they can involve vicious crimes perpetrated on undeserving victims, seem to me to have an essential light-heartedness about them which we don't find in some other excellent series set in the period between the wars. (I'm thinking of those by Charles Todd and Jacqueline Winspear, especially). In Cleverly's books, the British Empire is still the Empire on which the sun never sets, and its representatives still enjoy the self-confidence that brings. Todd's and Winspear's books, with protagonists who are themselves still traumatized by the Great War and who are dealing with situations arising from it, even years later, are excellent reading and perhaps more realistic. But if you like this historical period as much as I do, and need a break from the gloom, Cleverly's books should fit the bill nicely, as will Carola Dunn's Daisy Dalrymple series, which focuses on some of the positive changes brought about by the Great War.
429 reviews14 followers
May 17, 2014
This mystery was OK, entertaining enough so that I really want to give it 2 1/2 stars.

I loved the Sandilands mysteries set in India, in large part for the "local color." This one set in Paris left me a bit cold.

Joe is a nice enough guy, but not all that interesting (though easy to be around after spending time with Ian Rutledge, Charles Todd's much more troubled WWI-vet-back-as-an-English-policeman). There were many references to a prior story involving Sandilands and two other prominent characters, back in India, but I'd read it too long ago to have anything but the vaguest memory of it. I was confused as to whether an oft-mentioned Parisian street gang was, in fact, involved in the murders under investigation. And I thought the motivation for the Bad Guy Behind All Of It was utterly unbelievable.
Profile Image for Andrea.
984 reviews79 followers
August 29, 2016
First one I've read in this series. Well written, nice plot twists and historically accurate. Worth reading when you want a quick, well written mystery. Nothing sloppy and a bit of depth to the characters.
1,110 reviews
January 25, 2018
There is a "great divide" in the Joe Sandilands series and it comes between the stories set in India and the ones after that. The first four novels are absolutely amazing, 5-star spectaculars! After that, Joe goes home to England and fades among the rest of the amiable, agreeable, but ultimately forgettable crowd of literary Scotland Yard detectives. I will keep reading them anyway, because, as you can see from the 4-star rating, his "average" beats other's "best" by a long way! I haven't been able to put my finger on what causes this change from superlative to quite good, but it's definitely there.
It is obvious from the author's note and the rollicking story-line, that Barbara Cleverly set out to really enjoy herself in this one as she features so many real-life people and events of 1927 Paris! We see "Lucky Lindy" landing to a hero's welcome at Le Bourget field; we watch, enthralled with the rest of the audience at the Theatre des Champs-Elysees, as Josephine Baker knocks 'em dead while announcing the cross-Atlantic feat of her countryman and hometown namesake airplane; we listen to a somewhat improbable dialogue between Joe, his French counterpart and actual mystery author, Georges Simeon! It was fun to catch up with both an old friend (Sir George Jardin) and an old rogue (Alice Conyers) with her Dickensian last name! The plot begins with the gruesome death in a box seat at the Theatre des Champs-Elysees but quickly encompasses several other murders committed over a span of about four years. (One method used of hiding a recently deceased body inside a mummy-case is also used in a concurrent book in the author's Laetitia Talbot series in "Bright Hair About the Bone!) As usual, there is a dizzying array of suspects and motives before the real killer is revealed. My only objection is that the series of murders is exposed awkwardly and left as a dangling thread which is never tied up to my satisfaction.
2,102 reviews38 followers
November 4, 2020
1927 ~ Sandilands was to a conference of the fledgling Interpol at Lyons boarding the equally as yet fearsome to most, flight to France... while enroute, his old mentor during his India secondment, Sir George Jardine was enjoying a theatre performance by the famed black American chanteuse, Josephine Baker, owing to a balcony seat made possible by a mysterious ticket sent to him upon arrival at his hotel by his cousin at the British embassy (or so he thought by the note). By the time Sandilands landed, Jardine was arrested for the almost decapitation of a fellow Englishman who was cashiered due to Sir George's damning evidence during their time in India. But before his arrest and during the performance, Sir George met a woman from his past... a woman both known to him and Joe in India... the woman who re~invented herself into Alice Conyers (in Ragtime in Simla). Once again, she fell in love with the wrong man and events came to a head because of Sir George's character and sense of justice by showing concern for his enemy and that was his undoing. I am ambivalent about this one, though I thought it was a good one but then madness defeats reason.. so... I suppose it would have been shocking bad manners for Englishmen to be killing off each other in one of Europe's gay and romantic cities.
Profile Image for Shannon Tonetta.
58 reviews
September 21, 2025
Horrible from start to finish. The characters were deeply unlikable (seriously, who wants to read about British colonizers of India?), the dialogue corny beyond belief, and the mystery was predictable. I knew the killer even before the halfway point. I thought this would be a fun mystery to read while in Paris and honestly the only parts I enjoyed were the mentions of sites that I know. Other than that, I don't think there is a single redeeming quality in this book. And I find it likely that the author is a disturbed individual if she enjoys putting herself in the shoes of 20th century British military men who call their oppressed, colonized population "brutes", among other things. Genuinely just put a nasty taste in my mouth but I finished it because I bought it. I'll find a way to dispose of it because I would feel too guilty selling it back... no one deserves to have to read this.
Profile Image for Sally Atwell Williams.
214 reviews9 followers
June 4, 2017
Joe Sandilands is back from India and is going to a conference in Paris, France. When he gets there he finds that his very good friend, and the officer he reported to in India, has been accused of murder while attending a very risque performance in a Follies performance. Joe meets up with his French colleague and they go together to to the jail where he is being held and interrogated. From that point on, Joe and his friend tirelessly search for the people who had actually done the slaying, as well as get the Major out of incarceration. This is a very complicated mystery, and at times I needed to go back and reread certain sections of the book.
Profile Image for David Freas.
Author 3 books33 followers
September 10, 2019
Like other books in this series, Sandilands faces a straightforward problem – discovering the real killer of a disreputable British officer. Hampering his efforts are the crime happening in France, a French policeman determined to pin the murder on a former British ambassador, and a female British ex-pat of shady reputation and morals.

Cleverly throws just enough diversions and blind alleys in the mix to keep this story from being too simplistic or so complex, readers can’t follow it.

The rest of the book in this series are on my ‘To Read’ list.
Profile Image for Gail Humphrey.
111 reviews
January 8, 2018
Barbara Cleverly began Joe's adventures in India during the time of the Raj.
I especially loved those stories filled with such detail of the English troops and their families in India before the independence of India.
This story is set in Paris when painters and writers were everywhere and the characters who were in India once again make an appearance in the story.
Well researched and well written Barbara Cleverly's books are always worthwhile.
984 reviews1 follower
December 11, 2020
1029s Paris. Joe Sandilands is going to Paris and is handed a job to do. Sir George Jardine is in trouble and Scotland Yard send Joe to assist. He arrives at the airport just in time to see Lindberg arrive. Friends meet to help in the investigation; provide a safe house; provide entry into the British Embassy. Plenty of twists and turns to the end.
Wonderful description of the theatre and the underbelly of Paris. Great fun.
3,411 reviews23 followers
April 27, 2021
Excellent mystery full of twists and turns. Set in Paris in 1927, Joe Sandilands arrives (just before Charles Lindbergh) to attend a conference with the Surete, only to find that a colleague from India has been arrested for murder at the Follies Bergere. With the help of a young French policeman Joe met the previous year, Joe sets out to discover just who the murderer really was. Hard to put down. Highly recommended.
Profile Image for Claudia.
2,989 reviews37 followers
May 21, 2019
A quick and entertaining read, this time Joe Sandilands is in Paris, and a lot of the cultural icons of that time are present in the story.

As always, the story is entertaining, and well written, although it didn't grab me as others in this same series. Nevertheless, it's worth your time.
Profile Image for Bob.
601 reviews1 follower
August 17, 2019
We return to France and meet a number of characters from India. Good to follow these books in series to keep up with the cast of characters. I really enjoy the twists and turns with unexpected endings.
Profile Image for William.
953 reviews5 followers
June 19, 2021
Enjoyed the local of Paris and some of the light humor in the first half. The story just did not satisfy. Rather stupid and illogical. Just did not fit together very well. The ending was poor and frankly dumb!
Profile Image for Cindy.
2,815 reviews
October 19, 2024
The pacing was kind of uneven, especially in the middle. But the basic premise was good and the end kept me guessing. Great setting. I loved all the famous names in here, like Josephine Baker, Charles Lindbergh, and Georges Simenon.
Profile Image for Mary Montgomery.
271 reviews2 followers
November 24, 2017
Pretty good book. This was my first Joe Sandilands mystery, and I liked the time. I was also surprised by the perp, so that's fun.
Profile Image for Dan Adams.
Author 1 book3 followers
October 15, 2018
One of the best of Barbara Cleverly's mysteries featuring Scotland Yard's Joe Sandilands!
Profile Image for Anne Egbert.
1,054 reviews9 followers
March 6, 2017
I had kind of forgotten about the Joe Sandilands mystery series. Nice to get reacquainted with Joe and this one takes place in Paris. Lots of local color or the time between the two world wars. Plus a thought provoking who and how done it.
Profile Image for LJ.
3,159 reviews305 followers
November 8, 2007
FOLLY DU JOUR (Licensed Investigator-Joe Sandilands-Paris-1927) – VG
Cleverly, Barbara – 7th in series
Constable, 2007, UK Hardcover – ISBN: 9781845295288
First Sentence: Harland C. White of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania shuffled resentfully after his wife, May, through the Egyptian rooms in the Louvre museum.
*** It is Paris, 1927, Lucky Lindburgh has just landed and Josephine Baker and American Jazz has taken Paris by storm. Commander Joe Sandilands has come to Paris in aid of his friend, Sir George Jardine, who has been arrested for the murder of a fellow Englishman. The possible witnesses, two beautiful blonde women, one who was with Sir George and the other with the victim, have disappeared. Joe, with the assistance of Jean-Philippe Bonnefoye and Francine, a young usherette, work to prove the innocence of Sir George, taking the out of the glamour of the dance hall to the .
*** Cleverly’s Sandilands series is always a delight to read. The insertion of real people into the story adds verisimilitude to the sense of time and place, but sense of place is an aspect at which Cleverly excels. She creates great characters, Joe is one of my favorites, and I certainly didn’t figure out the villain.
Profile Image for Val Sanford.
476 reviews11 followers
March 3, 2015
Ms. Josephine Baker makes a grand appearance, as does Louis Armstrong and the music of the jazz age in Paris. Joe is caught up in a plot-twisting murder investigation while in Paris on a Scotland Yard mission. The French police believe they have their man, but Joe knows better and sets out to find and convict the culprit. This book left me confused at times; the plot twists were okay but the dialogue was overplayed and stiff. I never really got ahead of Joe, except for the very last revelation on the last page- that I guessed correctly. As Joe and Jean-Phillipe chased down murderers, the book became a fuzzy mess of "I don't care who did it," flat writing. She pulls it out at the end, but even so, I think it's a little too late. This won't stop me from reading the next one. I like Joe and the cast of characters around him and Cleverly weaves a good tale. This one just got a little away from her.
Profile Image for Kim .
434 reviews18 followers
October 13, 2010
An ok mystery, but kinda disappointing after the last Joe Sandilands book, which was fantastic. This one is also set in France and is a fairly entertaining, if brief, novel. But I was annoyed with Famous Person in a Historical Novel syndrome in which one famous person after another and one famous event after another just happen to brush shoulders with or somehow involve our protagonists. I thought the book should have used either Josephine Baker or Charles Lindbergh, but not both. And then there's Georges Simenon, who is a more obscure historical personage, but again, felt superfluous. The mystery was a sort of intentional melodrama, but in such a short book it just felt contrived. Add in the appearances of characters from earlier books in the series and this is just too chock full of amazing coincidences and special guest appearances for a book it only takes a few hours to read.
Profile Image for Spuddie.
1,553 reviews92 followers
October 4, 2018
Another great entry in this series featuring DI Joe Sandilands. In this book, he's off to Paris, ostensibly for a conference and then ends up waylaid when an old colleague is arrested for a brutal murder and is being given the third degree by the cops there. George Jardine has friends in high places though, so Joe will invoke the power of Scotland Yard to make sure justice is served. I have to admit it started off rather slow, but in the middle of the book things suddenly picked up and got a lot more interesting.

Interesting details in the book as, for example, Joe arrives in Paris at exactly the same time as Lucky Lindy makes his trans-atlantic landing and he also encounters Georges Simenon, another mystery author, during his investigation.
Profile Image for Ali.
1,064 reviews10 followers
April 6, 2010
Barbara Cleverly is one of my new favorite mystery writers. Her books are just literary enough that I don't feel guilty reading them, they're light enough to be beach reading, and they have fun historical settings with just enough action. She does a good job of plotting and pacing, and "Folly du Jour" is a perfect example of everything I like about her books.

The only thing preventing me from giving her books more stars is that there's very little character development; it's part of what makes Cleverly's novels great light reading, but keeps them from rising to the level of mysteries by PD James or Henning Mankell.
Profile Image for Spitz.
602 reviews
May 12, 2015
I haven't been reading this series in order. They seem to me to be hit or miss in terms of being a satisfying mystery. This one certainly has the charms of taking place in Paris in 1927 with cameos by Lucky Lindy, Josephine Baker and Georges Simeneon. The not so smooth mechanics of the plot however got in the way of my enjoyment.The distinctive, very British voice of Sandilands's speech and thoughts characterize almost every character's speech and thoughts as well. I really appreciate it when an author is able to create characters who differentiate themselves by their particular language patterns and vocabulary.
Profile Image for Dorothy.
509 reviews7 followers
September 13, 2014
This is my first Barbara Cleverly and I will be reading more!

I have to admit, I didn't warm to her writing style at first (though I can't put my finger on why), but the plot was well contrived and Joe made a good,if uncomplicated, hero. She had obviously done her research on Paris in the 20's so the sense of place was terrific.

I usually hate it when authors shoehorn famous people into their fiction, but in this instance I loved the artful and not over-done inclusion of Josephine Baker and her lover (and Maigret author) Georges Simenon. I could've done without Charles Lindbergh, though!
Displaying 1 - 30 of 77 reviews