From Amazon.com
It might help to have a copy of Hemingway's
The Sun Also Rises handy as you read this marvelously rich and evocative mystery set among the expatriates in Paris in 1925. That way, you'll know exactly which of Howard Engel's characters are based on Hemingway's cast of thirtysomethings. Hemingway (who narrated his voice through Jake Barnes in
The Sun Also Rises) is a cinch to spot in Engel's book--he's Jason Waddington, a tough American from Oak Park, Illinois, who loves boxing and bullfighting. In 1922, his wife lost a suitcase full of his original manuscripts on a train, and she has never quite gotten over the shame. That suitcase becomes a part of the mystery, as does "the Spanish novel," which Waddington wrote about his friends' bad behavior in Pamplona the summer before. Some of these "friends" will go to great lengths to keep the book from being published.
There are several lovely inside jokes, like the ambitious Belgian writer "Georges Sim" who knocks out books quickly and is encouraged to look into the possibility of writing detective stories. And there's enough drinking and snooty literary chatter about real writers and artists to make your head spin. --Dick Adler
From Publishers Weekly
Taking a break from his Benny Cooperman mysteries, Engel (Getting Away with Murder) presents a Parisian mystery involving cafes, romance, murder and lots of wine. In the fall of 1925, Canadian journalist Mike Ward arrives in the City of Light in search of the literary life. Soon he meets Jason Waddington, an expat American writer, and is lured into his circle of fashionable authors, painters, editors and socialites. Among them is the breathtaking Laure Duclos, a "teacher of French"; despite warnings from his friends that "she's poison," Ward is hooked after one look. Their affair is short-lived, however, since Laure is soon murdered, apparently by the notorious Jack de Paris, a serial killer with a penchant for stabbing beautiful women. Ward suspects someone has used Jack as cover to do away with Laure, however, and determines to find the real murderer. Meanwhile, cafe gossip insinuates that Waddington's current manuscript is a character-defaming expos? about his friends. Engel relies heavily on dialogue to push forward his plot, with plenty of intoxicated cafe talk thrown in, and his characters should please fans of the era: Waddington bears a pointed resemblance to Hemingway, and many other players are loosely based on notable writers or their famous fictional creations. Engel's descriptions of Paris in the '20s are charming, adding to the fun of the gambol he provides through the Left Bank and its denizens. Agent, Beverly Slopen. (Aug.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
