The Butler- Claire Mackintosh
Podium Publishing
Release Date: June 16, 2026
Rating: 📚📚📚
Synopsis: The South of France is stunning, though not without its imperfections, from pickpockets to burglars to the occasional cold-blooded killer. But in his twenty-five years of service, Baxter—with a spotless reputation as a polished, well-mannered butler—has never run into any issues catering to the ultrawealthy. Until now.
Baxter's latest assignment is at Villa Sérénité, where Alec Prescott is hosting a colorful cast of characters, including his ex-wife, his much younger lady friend, and some Hollywood hotshots, after the Cannes Film Festival. But it doesn't take long for a week of sun, wine, and a family birthday celebration to devolve into bickering and backstabbing. And soon, secrets aren't the only thing floating to the surface . . .When one of the guests is found dead in the villa's glittering pool, the unflappable Baxter must assist the gendarmes in determining who's responsible. With some standing to gain and others motivated to take it away, fingers are pointed in all directions. A good butler is expected to see everything and say nothing—but what if he too becomes a target?
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Baxter is the perfect butler: professional demeanor, thinks of everything ahead of time, lets nothing phase him. He's been hired to buttle for a home in Cannes over the film fest, where wealthy Alec Prescott is hosting film friends and family to celebrate his son's birthday. But more than a few hours into the weeklong party and backstabbing and old feuds emerge. When someone winds up dead in the pool, it isn't a huge surprise but it is inconvenient. All three of the staff are sheduled for other jobs soon and can't afford to hang around while the cops think about solving things. With the help of a local pickpocket called Red they decide to take matters into their own hands and solve the crime. Which puts Baxter on top of the killer's target list.
The Butler is the first book by Claire Macintosh I've read, but as someone writing a nonfiction book about butlers in mystery novels, how could I pass this up? It was a fun, quick read, almost a cozy mystery with wonderful descriptions of food, locations, views, etc. The end of the book definitely left open the possibilty for more to come, which would be great. Macintosh revealed tiny glimpses of Baxter's past and personality behind his professional facade in a slow-drip way that would suit a series, getting a little more in each book.
Each of the guests is suitably unlikable without the feeling that they all needed to go to jail and by the time we have a dead body we also have plenty of motives. I enjoyed how the staff all decided they were not sitting around for the police to slowly handle things: they all had places to be and other jobs to be getting on with, and would just deal with this themselves, thank you very much. And they do. The end "living room reveal" scene didn't feel very Baxter-like, but I think it hit about every cliche it could manage in a slightly tongue-in-cheek way.
This is a good examply of a book that didn't need a prologue. The writing for the prologue was so over the top just to get to the expected body in the pool I almost put the book down, because there was no way I could have read the book if the writing was like that the whole way through. Fortunately, it wasn't. I recommend skipping those few pages, or just know they don't reflect the book as a whole.
A fun summer mystery. I hope for more Baxter in the future.
I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review
