Paris

Rhys Bowen: The Paris Assignment

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Rhys Bowen is one of the best in the biz when it comes to narrative – I think her closest peer may be Harlan Coben.  With both writers, picking up one of their books means you will be subsumed by exquisite storytelling that’s impossible to look away from. Rhys Bowen trends more toward historical fiction rather than Coben’s domestic suspense model, so if that’s your jam, you can’t go wrong nabbing a copy of her latest book, The Paris Assignment.

The story begins in 1931 Paris, when young Sorbonne students Madeline Grant and Giles Martin meet.  Madeline is shy and sheltered, and Giles, the son of French nobility, is at home in Paris.  Madeline, at the Sorbonne for a semester away from her English college, hadn’t even dared to leave her hostel when Giles scoops her up and introduces her to the world of coffee shops, politics, friends, and fine food.  Well, you may guess where this is going – it’s 1931, but – it’s Paris! – and before long Madeline is pregnant.  Giles marries her, despite being disowned by his family, and the only support they have left is Madeline’s elderly French aunt. read more

Cara Black: Night Flight to Paris

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The second novel from Cara Black featuring WWII sniper/assassin Kate Rees is just as nail-bitingly difficult to put down as the first book.  Kate is getting her mojo back in Scotland, training recruits, when she’s whisked to London to renew her spycraft skills and get a new assignment.  She’s given specific instructions, but little information.  She’s to be sent to Paris with some penicillin, kill a target, extract an operative and return – within two days.  Black gives the reader the full treatment on every step of Kate’s journey, so you are with her on the bumpy flight to Paris, the landing in a field, and her exhaustion as the finds her way to the city to begin her mission. read more

Rachel Kapelke-Dale: The Ballerinas

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This is a delicious swoon of a book.  It’s not a mystery though there are some (very) low level crimes involved, but it’s mostly a story about ballet, female friendship, and the efforts women make to be heard and acknowledged in their lives, professional and personal.  The central character is Delphine Legere, and as the book opens, she’s a young student at the Paris Opera Ballet (POB), an elite dance training school.  Delphine and her best friend, the tempestuous Margaux, are challenged by the arrival of the beautiful American student, Lindsay. read more

Cara Black: Three Hours in Paris

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This book will be available on April 7, 2020.

This ticking clock thriller feels like the book Cara Black has long wanted to write, it’s so explosive, so taut, and so impossible to stop reading.  The propulsive narrative follows Kate Rees, a young American sent to assassinate Hitler when he visits Paris for three hours in 1940.  The set up introduces Kate as she’s waiting with her sniper rifle for Hitler’s appearance; then it goes back in time, very briefly, to establish Kate as a person.  She’d been living in Scotland with her Welsh husband and their baby daughter when she loses them both to a German bomb, making her determined to fight the Germans with every bit of herself. read more