The scent of a woman-odor di femmina-that elusive je ne sais quoi that brings out the Don Juan in men, gets Inspector Canal all confused in this new mystery.Is it the tentacular JVMQ Group, the cosmetics giant, that is threatening the life of that roguish Frenchman-turned-Manhattanite (loosely based on the inimitable French psychoanalyst, Jacques Lacan) , or someone in the chocolate industry?From Wall Street to Midtown and from the Colorado Rockies to Grasse, France-the undisputed perfume capital of the world-Canal is swept up into an investigation, and, against his better judgment, ends up accompanying the widow of a dead botanist on a romp through the multi-billion dollar world of aromas. Encountering the bitter complexities of marital projections and vexations, the ever-intriguing Canal discovers that the planet's sweetest scents and confections are strangely interconnected . . .
