An Art Lover’s Guide to Paris and Murder (A Countess of Harleigh Mystery Book 7)
In this latest installment of the Countess of Harleigh mystery series, husband-wife mystery-solving duo George and Frances receive a letter from his maiden aunt Julia, who lives in Paris, asking for help. Frances persuades George to go. After all, it’s 1900, the year of the Paris Exhibition. Once in Paris, they quickly see that the vivacious Julia is heavily involved in the Paris art scene, despite living in the country. She is a painter herself, with a small studio in the city. One of her artist friends, Paul Ducasse, has recently died. Julia appears to harbor suspicions about the nature of his death. She initially sent the letter in the hopes that the couple might help her investigate. After all, they’ve solved murders before.
However, she changes her mind once they’re in Paris and refuses to divulge what she knows. Then, while visiting the Exhibition with George and Frances, she is crushed to death in the collapse of a footbridge – or so it seems. The couple soon learns that she was in fact stabbed by someone in the crowd. This only makes them more determined to investigate both the death of Ducasse and that of Julia. We soon learn that Julia has a secret, teenage daughter fathered by the unhappily married Ducasse, which only complicates matters – especially as it becomes clear that the daughter, too, is in danger.
While the killer wasn’t my last guess and indeed seemed suspicious from the start, the various mysteries and plot twists intertwined with the main murders kept me hooked until the very end. The lively depiction of Paris was also quite thrilling.
