The Bones of Paris

I have been a big fan of Laurie King's work for years (the Mary Russell and Kate Martinelli series, as well as her stand alones) so was happy to see this new (2013) morsel. It grabs you right away and does not let go, keeping you guessing abot who is going to be next and who did what to whom. Set in late 1920's Paris, it is a detailed portrayal of the expat American community and the art scene in particular. The surrealists were making a statement about art-- above and beyond realism and above and beyond conventional mores and morality.
Harris Stuyveysant is a former Bureau agent (as in J.E.Hoover's bureau) who became disaffected and is now working as a solo investigator, roaming around Europe. There are hints sprinkled throughout the book that a bombing played a significant role in that decision--as it cost not only lives, but also the loss of the left hand of the woman he was in love with, Sarah. He has not seen or heard from her in several years, although he stays in touch, via postcards, with her brother, Bennett Grey. Grey has the unlucky distinction of having died in the war but being brought back to life with an out of control sensitivity to everything going on around him. He can tell a mile away if someone is lying and of course the government (British) would very much like to use that skill. He would very much like not to, and he lives as a hermit in Cornwall. When Harris sends Bennett several photographs of women who look terrified and asks if they are real or staged, Bennet feels compelled to come to Paris and this precipitates the climax of the book.
Leading up to that, Harris has come to Paris to try and locate a missing person, Philippa Crosby, at the behest of her uncle and mother. She is a young American woman who has been living in Paris for several years, but has now been out of contact for several months. By happenstance, Harris encountered Philippa in Nice prior to her disappearance and had a brief sexual fling with her, so he is motivated by more than money. When Harris goes to the Paris police to let them know he is pursuing the case, he finds out that the inspector, Emile Doucet, thinks there might be an emerging pattern to several recent disappearances. When Harris fails to turn up any evidence that Philippa is alive, he begins to believe she has come to a bad end. Meanwhile, pursuing Philippa's contacts in the art community, Harris learns about a surrealist theatre, the Grand Guignol, which ostensibly seeks to heal those traumatized by war by offering cathartic experiences of terror on the stage. Harris is not favorably impressed and, in fact, comes to believe several people associated with the theatre and the surrealist community (e.g., Man Ray) are potential suspects in Philippa's disappearance. When he drunkenly blunders into a confrontation with Man Ray and the theatre's patron, Comte Charmentier, he is stunned to find that Sarah Grey is working for the Comte. And to confound issues even further, she is engaged to Emile Doucet.
When Sarah disappears, Bennett and Emile Doucet go to talk to Charmentier, but are attacked by a gunman in an alley. Doucet is shot and now in a coma; Bennett has disappeared. Harris gets himself thrown in jail after confronting Ray in the hunt for Sarah, and then is accused of shooting Doucet. You don't know until the very end if Sarah is alive or dead, and whether or not Bennett will survive. King is a writer of great skill with complex, well-realized characters, vivid sense of place and compelling plots. A great read! King's book Touchstone, published in 2007, precedes this one with two of the characters, Stuyvesant and Bennett Grey.