The Stolen Life of Colette Marceau
Colette Marceau, now in her eighties, has been ‘relieving unpleasant people of their jewels since she was ten years old.’ It’s 2018, and she is still committed to her Robin Hood approach to life, just as she is still haunted by events in Paris during WW2, when her younger sister vanished. The last time Colette saw her sister, she was wearing a nightgown with a distinctive and valuable bracelet sewn into the hem. When her body is found in the Seine, Colette’s sister is dead, and the bracelet is missing.
This is a well-constructed dual timeline novel, moving between occupied Paris and modern-day America. Colette has a ‘found family,’ and her tenderness for others softens the sharp edges of her determined independence and persistent thieving. When the long-missing bracelet surfaces in a local gallery, Colette hopes she has a chance of answers and connects with the original owner of the bracelet, stolen from a Jewish family by Nazis but recovered by Colette’s mother. The Paris storyline gradually relates the loss and heartbreak in Colette’s past, allowing for all to be revealed in the contemporary timeline. Harmel has a magic touch when it comes to creating characters who readers will root for and find themselves turn the pages anxiously to see where the story goes. This one may be a little heavy on coincidence, but I ate it up happily in one enjoyable sitting.
