The Marseille Caper

Written by Peter Mayle

Narrated by Robin Sachs

Lovable rogue and sleuth extraordinaire Sam Levitt is back in another beguiling, as-only-Peter-Mayle-can-write-it romp through the South of France.

At the end of The Vintage Caper, Sam had just carried off a staggering feat of derring-do in the heart of Bordeaux, infiltrating the ranks of the French elite to rescue a stolen, priceless wine collection. With the questionable legality of the adventure—and the threat of some very powerful enemies!—Sam thought it’d be a while before he returned to France, especially with the charms of the beautiful Elena Morales to keep him in Los Angeles.

But when the immensely wealthy Francis Reboul—the victim of Sam’s last heist but someone who knows talent when he sees it—asks our hero to take a job in Marseille, it’s impossible for Sam and Elena to resist the possibility of further excitement . . . to say nothing of the pleasures of the region. Soon the two are enjoying the coastal sunshine and the delectable food and wine for which Marseille is known. Yet as a competition over Marseille’s valuable waterfront grows more hotly disputed, Sam, representing Reboul, finds himself in the middle of an increasingly intrigue-ridden and dangerous real-estate grab, with thuggish gangsters on one side and sharklike developers on the other.

Will Sam survive this caper unscathed? Will he live to enjoy another bowl of bouillabaisse? All will be revealed—with luck, savvy, and a lot of help from Sam’s friends—in the novel’s wonderfully satisfying climax.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Penguin Random House Audio Publishing Group
• Release date: Nov 6, 2012
• ISBN: 9780449013397

Peter Mayle

Peter Mayle has contributed to a wide range of publications in England, France and America and his work has been translated into 22 languages.

Reviews for The Marseille Caper

[clue_4 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Clearly this book, marketed as a caper, was meant to be nothing but fun and that's pretty much all you get. Fortunately I read it at the right time and really enjoyed it (only 209 pages).

Sam Levitt, an American lawyer who no longer practices law, is asked by billionarie Francis Rebout to represent him in an architectural competition in Marseille. A committee will decide who will be awarded the building of a housing development on the last available piece of land there. Rebout needs a front man because he and the person heading the selection committee are not friendly.

Sam takes girlfriend Elena along and they meet up again with a reporter friend in Marseille, Phillipe. For the most part, other characters are Good Guys and Bad Guys, there is a lot of money to be made by the winning developer and the possibility brings out plenty of rogues.

If you've read Mayle before you know he had a love and knowledge of French food and drink and interesting drinking and dining pad the plot. There was a previous book that featured Sam Levitt and Rebout, [The Vintage Caper] and if I run across it I'll read it too.

[farrhon · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Silly / like cotton candy and just as sweet

[bookconcierge · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Digital audio performed by Robin Sachs


This is book two in the Sam Levitt crime caper series. I haven’t read the first one yet, and this book references what happened in that book, so perhaps I should have read them in order. But, C’est la vie!

Sam Levitt is a former corporate attorney who’s been hired to help promote a development in Marseille. Think James Bond with less danger and more emphasis on enjoying life. Beautiful (and smart) girls, fantastic yachts, private jets, mansions with gorgeous sea views, political intrigue, sumptuous repasts, and good wine. Not to mention a couple of Corsicans and a multi-lingual assistant, all adept at playing a role. Stir, add a dash of spice and Voila! ... A fast, fun, romp of a comedy crime caper.

Gosh, I miss Peter Mayle!

Robin Sachs does a fine job narrating the audio. He sets a good pace and I love his French accent.

[phaedrab_2 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Fun and readable with an unusual setting, but prose is rather ordinary and women characters don't really exist outside of love interests, Still, pleasant enough that if if another volume by the author came my way, I would read it.

[petrichor8 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Great little read. Makes me want to go to France for a vacation, although without all the gangsters & subversion that's in this book!

[cygnet81 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Fun but not deep.

[lucybrown_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

True to form in The Marseille Caper, Mayle offers up a light, sleek entertainment, peppered with his characteristic name dropping of fine restaurants and wine along with those of posh luxury goods. The good guys are charming rogues, the bad guys well-heeled, but tasteless English nouveau riche. Sam Levitt returns after his premier foray in A Vintage Caper, but this time he is teamed up with Francis Reboul, the roguish billionaire from whom Levitt stole some prime wine in A Vintage Caper. This time the two are trying to pull off a building scheme in Marseille though millionaire Lord Wapping is bent on destroying their plan and promoting his own.

There is nothing thought-provoking here. No grand themes. A good holiday from more serious reading, a guilty diversion, but a well-written one with pretty scenery.

[simchaboston · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Light on plot and suspense, and the characters aren't all that complex (the female lead in particular is just along for the ride and eventual rescue). But I did enjoy the descriptions of the sights, sounds and tastes of Marseille and some of Mayle's witty asides, and the book served its purpose as a not-too-heavy summer read. Just don't ask me to remember much of it three months from now!

[annie.michelle · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I love Peter Mayle's books. I have read most of them...A year in Provence, Toujours Provence, acquired Tastes, Hotel Pastis, A dog's Life, Anything Considered, Chasing Cezanne, Encore Provence, A Good Year, The Vintage Caper, The Marseille Caper,

[shellybee-1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

A few days ago, I finished reading "The Marseille Caper" by Peter Mayle. The book is set in the south of France and stars Sam Levitt in his second Mayle outing. The first Sam Levitt outing is "The Vintage Caper", about a Bordeaux wine heist.

Sam and his girlfriend Elena travel to France at the request of Reboul, a "friend" of Sam's. There is a seaside area that the town of Marseille wants to develop. They're down to choosing among three development projects. Two projects are high rise apartments geared more toward the wealthy and tourists. One is represented by Lord Wapping, a British fellow and the other is represented by a Parisienne, Gabrielle.

Reboul's project is the third one, a low-key apartment complex, which would blend in better with the environment. Sam's hired by Reboul to present his land development deal to the town's committee, headed by Patrimonio, an enemy of Reboul's over a woman. Mayle tosses in lots of Marseille facts and delights in the restaurants' menus. Of course, there's a bad guy or two, mixed up in all of this, who causes mayhem (or attempts to anyway) for Sam and his project.

At first, I found Peter Mayle's writing style to be choppy, which made it difficult for me to stay interested in the plot. It took a few chapters for me to want to continue reading. The plot's light and definitely on the frothy side, while the characters need to have additional depth. In other words, more flesh on the characters and less whipped cream in the plot, please!

Once I overcame Mayle's style, the story moved pretty fast, though at times it read more like a travelogue than a novel. This book is definitely an easy read.

[harrod_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Most enjoyable

[ebyrne41_1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I took a chance on Peter Mayle's 'The Marseille Caper' without subjecting it to my usual filtering process (reading reviews, etc), instead picking it purely on the basis of having read and enjoyed many moons ago the author's travel books on Provence, and the hope of it taking me to a setting that would enthrall me and a story that would absorb me. Having been to the south of France a number of times, my expectations were high for it. Unfortunately, it did not quite live up to my hopes and expectations. It lacked suspense, the dialogue was weak, the characters uninteresting and the plot line lacked complexity. It does have a beautiful setting and you do get fair mention of the local cuisine, if you like that sort of thing (which I can do), but all the while I felt as though I was reading a travel writer rather than a true crime writer. Yes, this book might just be the thing to entertain you while lying on a beach in Cannes if you just want a light, relaxing and untaxing read, but I would still prefer to take a Vargas or a Camilleri or a Leon with me. The story itself is of Hollywood lawyer Sam who travels to Marseille with his partner Elena to champion a property tycoon's bid for a seafront development over two rival entries, and the shenanigans that thereafter unfold. But while danger beckons, you do know in your bones that this is going to be a happy ending sort of story. This is a follow up the 'The Vintage Caper', but it does not seem necessary to have read one before the other. But I do hope you get more from it than I did, should you read it!

[amusedbythis · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This is a fast-paced book which combines the author's loves of good food, wine and Provence with a little mystery.

[mainecolonial · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Amuse-bouche. Definition: A bite-sized hors d'oeuvre. From the French; literally, something that entertains the mouth.

In the late 1980s, British advertising executive Peter Mayle and his wife moved to Provence, where he intended to write a novel. Instead, he wrote an account of his new Provençal life; his oddball neighbors, his misadventures getting his ancient farmhouse renovated and maddeningly tantalizing descriptions of food and drink. A Year in Provence was a runaway best-seller worldwide and helped set off an explosion in Provençal tourism. At regular intervals, Mayle updated his chronicles, publishing Toujours Provence and Encore Provence, as well as other nonfiction books about French living and other topics.

Mayle did get around to writing novels, too; mostly caper-type stories that are the literary equivalent of what is called amuse-bouches in French cuisine. Every few years, probably about the time he needs a cash infusion to maintain his lifestyle, Mayle publishes another 200-pager: Hotel Pastis, Anything Considered, Chasing Cézanne, A Good Year, and The Vintage Caper. The Vintage Caper, published in 2009, is Mayle's first foray into series fiction.

In The Vintage Caper, Los Angeles-based investigator Sam Levitt is hired to track down Danny Roth's stolen multi-million-dollar wine collection. Sam's sleuthing takes him to Marseille and a little wine heist of his own. Along the way, there is a whole lot of mouth-watering food and wine, and the gorgeous scenery and atmosphere of the south of France.

Three years have passed and, in The Marseille Caper, Sam is back in Los Angeles, his romance still going strong with Elena Morales, the insurance executive who hired him to track down Danny Roth's wine. This time around, Sam is hired by Frenchman Francis Reboul to go back to Marseille and be Reboul's frontman in a competition to develop a valuable piece of real estate on a picturesque harbor. Elena goes along for some much-needed rest and relaxation.

The R&R is in short supply, though, as the competition turns ugly when Reboul's chief competitor, Lord Wapping, will go to any lengths to win. Luckily, Sam has a few tricks up his sleeve, too, and his compatriots--from suave journalist Philippe, to starchy (but always game) translator Daphne, to the Corsican brothers Flo and Jo--have all the guile and flair that Lord Wapping's crew of thugs lack.

This is a featherweight of a story; the kind of book so insubstantial that only an already-popular author could get it published. Still, it's an entertaining way to spend a few hours, especially if you're in the mood for a book that will take you on a mental vacation. During the bleak midwinter, an additional benefit of reading books like Peter Mayle's is that they remind me the days are getting longer and it won't be too much of a wait before I can sit on a terrace too, soaking up the sun, drinking fruity wines and eating--not just reading--amuse-bouches.

[etxgardener · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I was a huge fan of Mayle's A Year In Provence and its sequel, Toujours Provence, so I thought I try out one of his works of fiction. This was a huge mistake. This apparently the second in his so-called thriller series featuring detective/insurance investigator. Sam Levitt and his beautiful second banana/girlfriend Elena Morales. Thank heavens I didn't waste any time with the first book because if it was a poorly written and contrived as this volume is it would have been a week of my life I'd never get back again instead of just a couple of days.

[tadad_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Fun, but a piece of lightweight froth that has too much of a formulaic feel to it to allow it to rank with the better Mayle stories. The focus seemed to be more on listing great meals to be had in Marseille rather than the actual story.