Death After Breakfast: Hugh Pentecost

I read the Pierre Chambrun novels by Hugh Pentecost years ago, and remember them fondly. Chambrun is the manager of a luxury hotel in New York. The narrator of the stories is Mark Haskell, the hotel’s public relations director.  He is devoted to Chambrun, as is the rest of the upper level staff.

Summary from the back cover of my paperback edition:

Something was terribly wrong. Pierre Chambrun, manager of the elegant Beaumont Hotel, was late for breakfast–an ominous sign for a man whose schedule ran with the precision of a fine Swiss watch. What's more, he was nowhere to be found.

But that was just the start. Suddenly a beautiful socialite is found dead in her suite. Suddenly the most prominent guests are under suspicion. Chambrun's loyal staff must find him and the missing piece in a deadly puzzle before ... a sadistic killer strikes again.

The problem with reading this particular story as my re-introduction to the series is that Chambrun is missing for a good bit of the story. Thus this is not typical of the series. Although Pierre Chambrun usually does the sleuthing in this series, in this story, Mark Haskell and the hotel's security chief, Jerry Dodd, are in the spotlight.

There really is not a lot of tension about whether Chambrun will be rescued, but there is the mystery as to who would abduct him and why. I actually did begin to suspect the reason as the plot progressed but that did not spoil the fun for me. And there is the complication of the murder of the hotel guest to solve.

I do think it is the setting of a luxury hotel, and the behind the scenes look at how it runs, that appeals the most to me.  Of course if the characters were not interesting, that might not be enough. I enjoyed reading this book, it was very nostalgic for me. I will read one or two more to see if the quality holds overall in the series and continues to entertain.

About the author:

Hugh Pentecost was a pseudonym used by Judson Philips. Philips wrote many, many mystery novels (over 100?), including standalone books and series about John Jericho, Uncle George Crowder, Luke Bradley, Pierre Chambrun, Julian Quist, Grant Simon, Dr. John Smith, and Peter Styles. But it is only his Pierre Chambrun series that I have read. Twenty two books in that series were published between 1962 and 1988.

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Publisher: Dell, 1980 (orig. pub. 1978).
Length:    208 pages 
Format:    Paperback 
Series:     Pierre Chambrun
Setting:    New York City
Genre:     Mystery
Source:    I purchased this book at the Planned Parenthood book sale, 2019.

Some Favorite Authors from the Book Sale

Between September 20 - 28th of this year, we attended the Planned Parenthood book sale four times. I always get too many books, and you would think I would slow down. Not this year. Again I bought an insane amount of books, but I am happy with all that I bought.

Today I am featuring some books by forgotten authors that I found at the book sale.

I have become enamored with Anthony Price's David Audley espionage series and have had difficulties finding decent copies at a reasonable price. On the very last day of the sale I found five paperbacks by Anthony Price. What a treasure trove!

The  books in the series (19 in all) were written during the Cold War and are about an intelligence organization functioning at that time. A New Kind of War (1987) takes the reader back to a younger David Audley in Greece in 1945.

The other four books in this series that I bought are:
October Men (1973)
Our Man in Camelot (1975)
Sion Crossing (1984)
Here Be Monsters (1985)




Blood and Judgment (1959) by Michael Gilbert is the first novel featuring Patrick Petrella. He was also in a good number of short stories and one other novel. I have been looking for this novel for a while, so it was another wonderful find.

I have only read 4 novels by Michael Gilbert, but I liked them all. Plus one book of short stories about Calder and Behrens, British counter-intelligence agents (Game Without Rules). So I am thinking I will like the Patrick Petrella series also.

Other books by Michael Gilbert that I found:
Be Shot for Sixpence (1956)
After the Fine Weather (1963)
Flashpoint (1974)
The Killing of Katie Steelstock (1980)

And a short story collection:
Mr. Calder and Mr. Behrens (1982)

Hugh Pentecost was a pseudonym used by Judson Philips. Philips wrote many, many mystery novels, including standalone books and series about John Jericho, Uncle George Crowder, Luke Bradley, Pierre Chambrun, Julian Quist, Grant Simon, Dr. John Smith, and Peter Styles. But it is only his Pierre Chambrun series that I have read. Twenty two books were published between 1962 and 1988, although I am sure I did not read all of them. Chambrun is a hotel manager and I think it was that setting that was so fascinating when I read them years ago.

This year at the book sale I found Death after Breakfast (1978), Murder in High Places (1983), and Nightmare Time (1986) by Pentecost.

Another favorite author is Victor Canning, I discovered his books, especially the Birdcage series, at Existential Ennui. (Nick Jones also introduced me to Anthony Price's series.) I found this lovely paperback copy of The Mask of Memory (1974), which is the next book in the series that I have been waiting to read.