This is what I am working on at the moment. It will be published in december 2027.
What a joy to bring to life a city that has had its past numerous times erased by France. I do pride myself on writing historical mysteries that speak of the least spoken.
The book can be added now to your shelves via Goodreads.
Nice, 1854. The coastal city, governed by Turin, gleams
under a pale winter sun. It promises respite for the weary and a leisurely playground
for the wealthy who sojourn from all over Europe. But beneath its blue skies
and its welcoming hotels, Nizza as it is known, conceals a darker heart.
When detective Maurice Leroux arrives in Nice for the
winter, hoping to seduce witty English actress, Madeleine Armstrong, he
expects languid days strolling along the promenade by the sea and evenings at
the opera. Immersed in a city with a strong Italian heritage, all he has to do
is surpass his rival, the young, smooth-talking, Carlo Rocco. Instead,
the glitter turns to nightmare when a guest at the lavish Hotel de Rome
is brutally murdered.
Among the hotel’s exotic residents are Countess Sofya
Smyrnova, a Russian noble who once escaped the flames of Moscow in 1812; Baroness
Alexandra Ivanova, a gossip-inclined Russian widow; Antoine Grasset,
a French journalist with too many secrets; and Professor Milton Hayward,
a linguist whose scholarship conceals a tragic obsession. When death claims
them one by one, Maurice is drawn into a grim mystery that stretches from Nice’s
stately establishments to the hidden warrens of its underworld, all the way to
the candlelit salon of famed fortune teller, Madame Zora.
To unmask the web of deception, Maurice must navigate Nizza’s
labyrinth of depravity, its debauched parties, its seedy port, and human markets,
and even seek counsel from Giuseppe Garibaldi, the city’s native hero. But
as the truth unravels, he discovers that all the victims shared a bond forged
long before their arrival… a bond written in fire and betrayal.
A sumptuous, atmospheric mystery where vice, ghosts from the
past, and vengeance converge bringing to life long-forgotten Nizza.
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