Anything Considered

A joyous return to Peter Mayle country, a rollicking caper set on the Cote d'Azur and in the luscious landscape of Provence.

Bennett, an English expatriate living in France, has champagne tastes and a vin ordinaire bankroll. He has abandoned a successful career and found an ideal village in which to idle. But when a business scheme fails to work out, he finds himself broke.

Not a man to be downhearted, he places an advertisement in the International Herald Tribune volunteering his services-anything considered. The most attractive response comes from a rich Englishman named Julian Poe, who has developed a means of producing superb truffles and is close to cornering the lucrative truffle market.

Bennett signs on and -- bliss! -- he finds himself in Monaco and able to live in a style to which he has wished to become accustomed. But soon -- sniffing the financial potential of the truffle -- Sicilian and Corsican Mafiosi intrude. Life gets somewhat hectic. Ham-fisted goons, gendarmes working at cross-purposes, French village busybodies, and an order of Monks dedicated to the god Bacchus all play a role in a surprising and satisfying denouement.

A generous, delicious serving of vintage Mayle.

Peter Mayle is the author of A Year in Provence and Toujours Provence, as well as the novels Hotel Pastis and A Dog's Life.