Lost in Paris
A Novel
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5.0 • 1 Rating
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- $16.99
Publisher Description
"Lovers of post-WWI Paris will have fun." —Publishers Weekly
"It's perfectly frothy fun supported by a wealth of tasty historical tidbits." —Booklist
Pulsing with the glamour and excitement of the Jazz Age, Lost in Paris explores a young woman’s journey to redeem herself from the heartaches of her past, while finding her way forward in tumultuous, unprecedented times.
NO ONE CAN HURT YOU LIKE FAMILY
PARIS, 1922: Zoe Barlow knows the pain of loss. By the age of eighteen, she’d already lost her father to suicide, and her reputation to an ill-fated love affair—not to mention other losses, too devastating for words. Exiled from her home and her beloved younger sister by their stepmother, she was unceremoniously dumped in Paris without a friend to help her find her way.
Four years later, Zoe has forged a new life as a painter amidst fellow artists, expats, and revolutionary thinkers struggling to make sense of the world in the aftermath of war. She’s adopted this Lost Generation as her new family, so when her dear friend Hadley Hemingway loses a valise containing all of her husband Ernest’s writings, Zoe happily volunteers to track it down. But her search for the bag keeps leading to murder victims, and Zoe must again face hard losses—this time among her adopted tribe. If she persists in her reckless quest to find the killer, the next life lost may be her own.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Set in 1922, this capable series launch from Webb (the Lena Jones mysteries) introduces painter Zoe Barlow, who moved to France four years earlier after her family banished her from their Alabama estate for her scandalous behavior. Zoe's friendships among the Paris avant-garde, among them Ernest and Hadley Hemingway, substitute for the family she's lost. When she hears that Hadley lost a suitcase containing Ernest's manuscript drafts in a Paris railway station, Zoe mounts a search. She learns that the valise was stolen by porter Vassily Popov, an impoverished Russian immigrant living in a tiny village outside Paris. She arrives at Popov's hut only to find him and the young woman he says is his daughter—who may be Anastasia Romanov, daughter of the murdered Russian czar—shot to death. Zoe clashes with handsome Det. Insp. Henri Chaillot, whose suspicions of her reawaken a few days later when she discovers the bodies of two of her friends shot with the same gun used in the earlier crime. Zoe's intriguing backstory and Webb's inventive use of incidents such as Hemingway's lost valise and Anastasia's rumored survival more than compensate for the forgettable sleuthing. Lovers of post-WWI Paris will have fun.
Customer Reviews
Fascinating
This is not your ordinary mystery. Webb brings Paris in 1922 alive. The main character is a flawed and hurt woman who we will look forward to meeting again in a future mystery.