Published by St. Martin's Press
Publication date: November 18th 2014
In The Paris Winter, Maud Heighton is a young British woman in 1910, escaping the conventions that bind by moving to Paris to train as an artist at the renowned Academie LaFond. Unfortunately, unlike a number of her classmates she does not have a family fortune to support her Parisian life and so must find employment to continue to stay in Paris. When a friend finds her a job as a live-in companion to a sickly woman Maud thinks her troubles are over.
Christian and Sylvie Morel are brother and sister but due to an addiction to opium, Sylvie doesn’t leave their apartment. With time, Maud’s presence helps her while the Morel’s wealthy lifestyle brings Maud into contact with some of the higher strata of Parisian society and as time passes she is able to relax her fears about poverty and the struggle to make ends meet. When one day an old woman visits the house and accuses the Morels of killing her husband and stealing their diamonds, Morel shrugs it off to Maud as demented ravings. Comfortable in her new life, Maud gives it no more thought but events occur that leave her wondering how crazy the woman really was. It takes the horrible flooding that occurred in Paris in late 1910 to bring resolution to the tricks and games Maud finds herself drowning in.
Author Imogen Robertson fills The Paris Winter with deception against a background of the Belle Epoque—with all the best of Paris on display. By layering people from all walks of Parisian life with accurate historical details she creates a world that is both light and charming but dark and unstable underneath. Which one prevails?
This book can be purchased online at:
The Elliott Bay Book Company
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