City of Darkness and Light (Molly Murphy Mysteries)
It’s lucky number 13 for this lively addition to the award-winning Molly Murphy series. After their New York home is bombed, police captain Daniel Sullivan packs wife Molly and young son Liam off to Paris to stay with friends. Newly retired from the detective business, Molly lands in the middle of another mystery when her expat hosts aren’t in their Paris apartment to receive her. Her only clue to their whereabouts is a recent letter that mentions a pending introduction to the artist Reynold Bryce. But, quelle horreur, Bryce has just been murdered! Inquiring of artists in turn-of-the-century Paris, Molly meets Pablo Picasso, Gertrude Stein, Mary Cassatt, and Edgar Degas. (All while finding trustworthy child care for her still-nursing son and getting up to speed on the Dreyfus affair.) Molly is a smart, feisty heroine who admirably defends her investigation to a very skeptical Sûreté. Though placed a decade or so earlier, this breezy historical mystery will appeal to fans of Carola Dunn’s Daisy Dalrymple and Jacqueline Winspear’s Maisie Dobbs. --Karen Keefe