Death at the Paris Exposition: An Emily Cabot Mystery

McNamara’s charming sixth Emily Cabot mystery (after 2014’s Death in Chinatown) captures the Art Nouveau ambiance of Paris during the opening of the World’s Fair of 1900. The first key scene, set in the hallowed fashion house of the couturier Worth, demonstrates that the author is a dedicated follower of fashion. Tea gowns, wedding dresses, walking suits, and evening attire are lovingly detailed, as are the hats—many as big as serving platters and festooned with feathers, silk roses, bows, and veils. Emily, a university lecturer, wife, and mother, is in Paris serving as the private secretary of Chicago socialite Bertha Palmer, the one woman serving as a U.S. commissioner to the exposition. Historic figures, such as the impressionist painters Mary Cassatt and Edgar Degas, as well as scions of the Worth and Cartier clans, mingle easily with the fictional cast. Rapacious mothers, intent on seeing their offspring married to titled Europeans; jewel thefts; and murder accessorize the plot. [em](Sept.) [/em]