The Clock Struck Murder
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- $9.99
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
One woman's trash is another woman's--lost Chagall masterpiece?!?
Expat Zoe Barlow has settled well into her artist’s life among the Lost Generation in 1920s Paris. When a too-tipsy guest at her weekly poker game breaks Zoe’s favorite clock, she’s off to a Montparnasse flea market to bargain with the vendor Laurette for a replacement. What Zoe didn’t bargain for was the lost Chagall painting that’s been used like a rag to wrap her purchases! Eager to learn whether Laurette has more Chagalls lying about like trash, Zoe sets off to track her down at her storage shed. With no Laurette in sight, Zoe snoops around and indeed finds several additional Chagalls—and then she finds Laurette herself, dead beneath a scrap heap, her beautiful face bashed in.
With Paris hosting the 1924 Summer Olympics, the police are far too busy with tourist-related crimes to devote much time to the clock seller’s murder. After returning the paintings to a grateful Marc Chagall, Zoe begins her own investigation. Did the stolen paintings play any part in the brutal killing? Or was it a crime of passion? Zoe soon discovers that there were many people who had reason to resent the lovely Laurette. But who hated the girl enough to stop her clock permanently? When Zoe discovers a second murder victim, the pressure is on to find the killer before time—and luck—run out.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Webb's ingratiating second mystery featuring American expat Zoe Barlow (after Lost in Paris) once again puts its lead on a collision course with real-life historical figures. In 1924 Paris, Zoe is hard up for money, and still hoping Pinkerton operatives back in the States will locate her missing daughter. After her favorite porcelain clock breaks, her search for a replacement leads to a flea market in Montparnasse, where she buys a new clock from vendor Laurette Belcoeur, only to find, when she gets home, that it's been wrapped in a painting by Marc Chagall. Baffled by the artwork's shabby treatment and convinced that Laurette must not have known what it was, Zoe returns to Montparnasse to track down the vendor. After much poking around, she discovers Laurette bludgeoned to death in her storage shed, her corpse next to a stack of other Chagalls. With the police overcommitted to combating petty crime as Paris prepares to host the Olympics, Zoe sets out to solve Laurette's murder herself, and in the process uncovers evidence of another killing. The plot's similarity to the previous entry—in which missing Hemingway writings lead Zoe to investigate two murders—shows signs of rote formula, but Webb's vivid evocation of 1920s Paris wins out in the end. Francophiles will have fun.
