Monsieur Pamplemousse Takes the Cure — Michael Bond

When France's leading gastronomic guidebook decides to launch itself into the expanding health farm market, its Director decides Monsieur Pamplemousse is the man for the job: overweight, underactive, with a blood pressure count that threatens to shoot off the top of the scale.So the former Surete detective finds himself banished to the punitive regime of the Chateau Morgue, a Pyrenean health clinic from which a number of damning reports have already emerged, centred largely on its shady-sounding owner, Herr Schmuck.The Chateau Morgue fulfils Pamplemousse's grimmest expectations; obligatory dawn snow tramps, rock-hard beds and meals comprised solely of muddy spa water. And it also provokes his deepest suspicions. Why does a hearse pay such frequent visits? What is going on in the astoundingly luxurious Tower Block? And what is the significance of the delicious parcel of sausages sniffed out by Pamplemousse's indispensable bloodhound, Pommes Frites? With Pamplemousse and Pommes Frites on the trail truth is finally revealed - but not before their sleuthing stamina has been tested to its absolute limits...