Anita Byler's Reviews > Murder in the South of France

This book was so full of errors that, after wading through the first 30% or so on my Kindle, I threw in the towel. Oh I skimmed through the rest of it, focusing on the last few chapters- I hate not finishing a book- but this one is ridiculous. Believe me, there's a very good reason this one's a freebie.
The first glaring mistake I caught was the main character calling her parents "at 8:30 pm in Atlanta, GA, USA"- and the sun hadn't even set yet in France. I grew up in the Midwest (same time zone as GA); I live in Europe. At 8:30 pm in GA it's 2:30 AM in France. The next massive one- first the bribe/ransom/whatever is 30,000 euros; then it's 30,000 dollars. And on and on and on.
And as so many others have mentioned- the entire plot line is so bizarre, so stupid- I'm not sure I've ever read a story where the 'good guys' were so completely utterly foolish. (view spoiler)[ Smuggle a child into the US with a fake passport? Who does that? (hide spoiler)] How Maggie's father managed to get (supposedly) rich when he coughs up big bucks in extortion and ransom every other week is beyond me. And how Maggie managed to survive into adulthood is also astounding.
Another thing that really irritated me: The big fuss Maggie made (maybe in her own thoughts, maybe to someone- don't remember) about a baby being born out of wedlock but then her complete willingness to get involved with that utter creep Laurent, have a 'one night stand' (albeit in the afternoon) with him, let him move in with her; and then TAKE HIM BACK after she knows he's a liar, a crook- who knows what all. And she thinks a baby born out of wedlock raises 'holier than thou eyebrows' while her stupid behavior doesn't??
And the child was 3 at one point, then 5; they knew about her for about 3 days; they knew about her for a year (or a month or 3 years- does it matter? Time continuity meant nothing to the author, that much is clear). You know the stories they tell about JK Rowling making spreadsheets to plot out her books? Yeah- she did that because if you want to keep things straight, write a story where 'facts' line up, you have to make an effort. There's a reason JKR got rich off of her books; she cares and she's good.
When I was in middle school, I used to make up long, detailed stories; some of them I wrote down, many were just in my head. This story is about as logical as those were.
Did any editor ever see this book?