Foreign News: Murder at the Ritz

To a prim, convent-educated London typist, Pierre-Joël Delaitre was all that a storybook French nobleman should be: tall, educated, tastefully dressed, charming, wealthy. To those who knew him better, he was also mean, hot-tempered, pampered, and a wastrel. Reared in luxury at the 18th century Château de Mainténiac, Pierre was the scourge of the neighborhood—borrowing the tenants' farm horses to race across country, frightening the villagers of nearby Préchâtel by roaring through their marketplace in his racing car. He frittered away a fortune and tried to recoup by smuggling, but fell afoul...