Kelly Bowen’s “The Paris Apartment” is told in two timelines: in the present, Aurelia Leclaire inherits her grandmother’s Paris apartment, which has been uninhabited since the end of World War II, and discovers a time capsule of Nazi memorabilia and hidden art treasures. And in the 1940s, Aurelia’s grandmother, Estelle Allard, is living a double life as a night club singer for the Nazi occupiers and an informant for the Resistance.
Aurelia enlists the help of an art dealer, Gabriel Seymour, to determine the provenance of the paintings and to unravel the mysteries of her secretive grandmother’s life: was she a collaborator? Did she steal these priceless works, or hide them away from the Nazis? And who left behind the traces of habitation in the hidden room in the apartment?
The story of Estelle is a bit more engaging than the story of Aurelia, involving Jewish refugees, downed Allied pilots, and an assassination plot. But even more interesting is a character who doesn’t get top billing in the cover blurb: Sophie Kowalski (née Seymour), the English widow of a Polish officer killed in the opening hours of the war who has become a secret agent bent on vengeance and who crosses paths with Estelle at a fateful moment.
I found Bowen’s writing engaging, and the story propulsive and tense (particularly when Estelle and Sophie finally join forces). This isn’t exactly my area of historical expertise, so I can’t speak to the story’s accuracy, but it certainly feels realistic and well-researched. It looks like Bowen has several Regency romances, which are not my particular cup of tea, but also another World War II era historical romance, so I may give that a try in the coming year.
