Death in Brittany

I'm not sure where I heard about this new mystery, by Jean-Luc Bannalec, an 'international bestseller' according to the book jacket, but I'm always happy to try out a new series... and its being set in Brittany was promising, too. That turned out to the best part.  Our detective is Commissaire Dupin, who has been banished to Concarneau, a small town on the Atlantic coast, after getting into some kind of trouble in Paris. (We never really learn too much more about him, except that he has messy hair, he's grown fond of his new home, he has eccentric working habits, and he has a hard time with relationships); he's an appealing character but not an especially interesting one, at least so far. As for the mystery, an elderly resident of Pont-Aven is murdered; he's the very dedicated third-generation owner of a small hotel in a town famous because Gauguin and a school of artists lived and painted there in the late 19th century, and the case hinges on one of the dozens paintings -- all of them copies -- that have hung for a decades in the hotel's restaurant. The denouement seemed a little predictable, too.  But what will probably bring me back for the next book is the well-drawn setting {and more of a wish, now, to go there someday, a nice thought to end the workweek on}.