Murder in Paris

Paris, 1927. The City of Light is alive with music, art, fashion, and celebration as Charles Lindbergh receives a hero's welcome following his historic transatlantic flight. Cora Thorogood arrives with her husband, Archie, and their clever maid and trusted friend, Molly Greene, expecting a holiday filled with famous landmarks, elegant cafés, and Parisian romance. Instead, an unsettling stranger seems to follow Cora through the crowded streets, and a chance meeting with the arrogant surrealist painter Henri Marchand leaves her troubled by his fascination with cruelty, secrets, and the darkness hidden inside ordinary people.

At a glittering reception attended by diplomats, aviators, writers, musicians, artists, and American expatriates, Henri quarrels with several guests before collapsing from a fatal stab wound. His former wife points toward jealous lovers and artistic rivals, while a trail of blood leads back to a secluded corner where the killer may have struck unseen. When Inspector Jean-Luc Armand discovers a coded message among Henri's papers, the murder begins to look like more than an act of passion or revenge.

Working under the skeptical inspector's supervision, Cora, Archie, and Molly move through smoky cafés, fashionable dress shops, private homes, museums, nightclubs, and Henri's chaotic Montmartre studio. Their investigation exposes broken marriages, ruined careers, artistic jealousy, aviation rivalries, and dangerous political loyalties. Every suspect wanted something from Henri-a painting, money, recognition, affection, revenge, or silence-and nearly everyone at the reception had something to conceal.

As Archie follows the coded message toward a possible espionage plot, Molly proves that people often reveal their secrets to those they underestimate. Cora also calls upon the magical wooden Villagers, including Nicholas, Arve, and Ola, whose unusual abilities may help uncover what ordinary witnesses cannot. But when Henri's studio is consumed by fire and someone close to the investigation is placed in danger, Cora realizes that the murderer may be watching their every move.

Caught between her determination to find justice and her promise to enjoy Paris with Archie, Cora must separate personal betrayal from political deception before the killer strikes again. Filled with glamorous historical personalities, lively marital banter, coded clues, magical intrigue, and a crowded field of suspects, A Murder in Paris is a twisting Cora Chronicles mystery in which beauty hides cruelty, art conceals secrets, and the most dangerous person in the room may be the one standing in plain sight.