Do you have a hankering to get away from it all this spring? May we suggest that you armchair travel with one of A&B’s recent titles which makes Paris its atmospheric setting.

Jim Eldridge, author of Murder at the Louvre, says he wrote the tenth instalment in the Museum Mysteries series as a love letter to the city: ‘For me Paris is the City of Light, the city of love, of literature and the arts. I always get a thrill when I listen to Ella Fitzgerald singing Cole Porter’s “I Love Paris”.’

Laurie R. King’s latest Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes novel, The Lantern’s Dance, is also set in the French capital. We asked her why is the City of Light the perfect setting for a dark tale of mystery?

‘Every city has its bright boulevards and its dark corners, but the vast 19th century renovations under Bruno Haussmann put Paris in a category of its own. Entire neighbourhoods were swept away and replaced by a great crossroads of wide, bright avenues, luxury hotels, manicured public parks… which also mean that the dim labyrinths around this new face of Paris became all the more crowded, decrepit, and dangerous by comparison. My story thrives on the contrast.’

Similarly, Flora Johnston, author of The Paris Peacemakers which focusses on the Paris Peace Conference following the end of World War One, says:

‘I was very aware of the contrasts of light and darkness which existed in Paris in 1919. France had been ravaged by four years of war, and Paris was full of refugees, wounded servicemen and other casualties of war, with a terrible housing crisis made worse by the arrival in the city of large delegations from across the world. Those who had survived the war were desperate for pleasure, entertainment and escape, but the bright lights reveal the scars of the last four years.’

We are offering one person the chance to win signed copies of all three of these Parisian-inspired books. To enter, complete the form at the following link and bonne chance!

https://forms.gle/D2u2FGTaBTog6igi9

UK entrants only. Full terms and conditions can be found at: https://www.allisonandbusby.com/terms/