Lost in Paris

Set in 1922, this capable series launch from Webb (the Lena Jones mysteries) introduces painter Zoe Barlow, who moved to France four years earlier after her family banished her from their Alabama estate for her scandalous behavior. Zoe’s friendships among the Paris avant-garde, among them Ernest and Hadley Hemingway, substitute for the family she’s lost. When she hears that Hadley lost a suitcase containing Ernest’s manuscript drafts in a Paris railway station, Zoe mounts a search. She learns that the valise was stolen by porter Vassily Popov, an impoverished Russian immigrant living in a tiny village outside Paris. She arrives at Popov’s hut only to find him and the young woman he says is his daughter—who may be Anastasia Romanov, daughter of the murdered Russian czar—shot to death. Zoe clashes with handsome Det. Insp. Henri Chaillot, whose suspicions of her reawaken a few days later when she discovers the bodies of two of her friends shot with the same gun used in the earlier crime. Zoe’s intriguing backstory and Webb’s inventive use of incidents such as Hemingway’s lost valise and Anastasia’s rumored survival more than compensate for the forgettable sleuthing. Lovers of post-WWI Paris will have fun. Agent: Jill Marr, Sandra Dijkstra Literary. (Apr.)