KIRSTY MANNING The Paris Mystery. Reviewed by Ann Skea
The glamour of prewar Paris is the backdrop to a murder in this new novel from the author of The Lost Jewels.
Drums rolled. The orchestra struck opening chords as the elegant hostess, Lady Eleanor Ashworth, stepped into the spotlight dressed in a black tulle Chanel gown draped with a cobalt cape. Behind her, the outline of Chȃteau de Versailles shimmered in the distance.
The Prologue of this novel is so full of glamorous exoticism that I almost decided that this book was not for me. The cream of Parisian society are enjoying a masked Circus Ball in the last halcyon days immediately before the start of World War II and there are fireworks, acrobats, a tightrope walker, and ponies carrying ‘burlesque dancers in matching burgundy masks and under-bust corsets’. Then there is a melodramatic scream, which interrupts proceedings, ends the Prologue, and begins the mystery.
Chapter 1, however, establishes a rather more realistic scene as Charlie (Charlotte) James, newly arrived from Australia, alights from the Night Ferry train in 1938 to begin her job as news correspondent for the Paris desk of the London newspaper, The Times.
Charlie, who has forged a successful career for herself at a Sydney newspaper, speaks French, thanks to the efforts of her French mother. She has also learned good investigative skills through helping her Australian barrister father with some of his work.
As a child Charlie would fold herself into the sofa at the far corner of her father’s office, sketching his face or practising the French verb conjugations her mother insisted on, while he pieced together criminal cases for the Crown. One of Sydney’s leading prosecutors, he hunted convictions … He’d often discuss them at length with his eldest daughter; he encouraged her input … and challenged her to help him step through evidence.
Charlie was ‘the most studious of her siblings’ and preferred to do this rather than play outside. It was her father who encouraged her to apply for a job as a cadet journalist. Her upbringing, too, had convinced her that she was ‘as capable as any man’ and that, unlike other young ladies in Sydney society at that time, she could pursue a career. So, she arrives in Paris, confident, familiar with blunt-talking newspapermen, and well equipped to tackle her new job.
The first assignment her new boss, George Roberts, gives her is to cover Lady Ashworth’s Circus Ball, which the Duke of Windsor and Wallis Simpson are expected to attend. Lord Rupert Ashworth, George tells her, used to have close contacts in Downing Street but had been ‘posted to Paris as a diplomat’ by the prime minister when King Edward abdicated because he was ‘too close to King Edward – backed the wrong horse’. Charlie’s job is to ‘hook’ the Ashworths, get access to their network, and ‘write a cracking feature’.
Thanks to the help, friendship and well-established society network of Violet Carthage, George’s surprisingly elegant office manager, Charlie makes an excellent start, interviews Lady Ashworth to discuss the forthcoming Circus Ball, and is there at the ball when the murder that prompts the terrible scream occurs.
Violet was with George to greet Charlie when she got off the train from London, and helps her to settle in. Charlie marvels at her beauty and her elegance:
Violet had brown skin, twinkling dark eyes and jet-back hair courtesy of her Malay mother, and she wore a spectacular zebra-print pencil skirt and matching jacket that would have swallowed anyone else. She sashayed around with a Hermes bag slung on her wrist, dressed head to toe in couture, chin held high as if she were about to lunch with the president rather than run errands for her curt bureau chief.
She is also efficient, and has organised the interview with Lady Ashworth, who treats Charlie in a friendly way (choosing to call her ‘Just Charlie’ when Charlie corrects her use of ‘Charlotte’), introduces her to the young ‘up-and-coming’ American photographer, Conrad Mackenzie, and invites her to the ball:
‘Wear something fabulous. Don’t be late, Just Charlie. Trust me, you won’t want to miss a thing.’
Looking at Conrad’s portfolio, Charlie finds the ‘emotional range’ of the images beautiful and unusual. ‘I like to capture people’s inner world,’ he tells her, and Charlie is impressed enough to suggest that she will take the portfolio to her boss and Conrad could be offered a contract to work with her. It is agreed that he will take photographs for her at the ball and, as it turns out later, he becomes an important witness, and a suspect, when the police begin their investigation of the murder.
Dressing for the ball poses a dilemma for Charlie, who has only her plain work clothes with her. Violet, however, solves the problem by taking her to the atelier of her Russian lover, Aleksandr Ivanov, who is one of the foremost couturiers in Paris. Aleksandre approves of Charlie’s figure and her auburn curls, and insists on making a dress for her as a gift because ‘In my dress, you’ll stand out and also attract attention to my design, so I benefit, too.’ He also suggests that:
You and I, Charlie James, are in the same business. People tell us their secrets. I see diplomats’ wives, aristocrats, even royalty. I came to Paris to meet such people, da. Interesting people wear my dresses. C’est compris?
Through Violet and Aleksandre, Charlie meets all the people who will become suspects in the murder, and there are a number of them who have the motive and the opportunity. There are also diplomatic concerns involved, so the plot is suitably complicated. To keep her job, Charlie needs to write up-to-the-minute news reports of the murder for The Times, so the fact-sharing arrangement she comes to with the police officer in charge of the investigation becomes very valuable and provides her with information that fuels her fascination with the murder. As part of her own journalistic investigations, she is busy trying to sort through the facts: ‘Be truthful, check the facts … then check them again,’ her father would say.
It helps that Inspecteur Benolt Bernard takes a liking to her, invites her to join him for lunch to discuss their mutual involvement (Charlie has immediate access to Conrad’s photographs whilst the police would have to go through time-consuming ‘official channels’) and agrees to keep her informed of any proceedings not subject to confidentiality in his investigation.
Charlie’s personal life intrudes at times when she remembers the good times and the sex she had with her husband, from whom she is in the process of getting a divorce. She remembers, too, the shock of discovering his adultery. She is an attractive woman, but does not yet feel totally free, although, as Lady Ashworth tells her:
The magic of Paris, my dear, is that you can let go of whatever dreariness you left behind and be whatever you damn well please.
In Paris, Charlie finds that many people, married or not, have romantic liaisons, but those between the people she meets serve to complicate the mystery she is trying to solve.
Kirsty Manning handles this murder mystery, the multiple suspects, the twists and turns of the plot, and the exotic setting skilfully and well. There is a sense of escapism, as she suggests in her Acknowledgements – lockdown gave her the urge ‘to write something a little lighter, sexier and more mysterious’, and prewar Paris seemed to offer ‘joy and delight’, ‘panache’, ‘heavenly food, masses of couture, elegant houses and Champagne’. Consequently, there is plenty of glamour, lots of Belle Epoque champagne, beautiful clothes, aristocratic people, and unusual characters, but there is also a solid mystery to keep the reader guessing and, finally, an unexpected revelation that leaves questions to be pondered.
Kirsty Manning The Paris Mystery Allen and Unwin 2022 PB 320pp $32.99
Dr Ann Skea is a freelance reviewer, writer and an independent scholar of the work of Ted Hughes. She is author of Ted Hughes: The Poetic Quest (UNE 1994, and currently available for free download here). Her work is internationally published and her Ted Hughes webpages (ann.skea.com) are archived by the British Library.
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