April in Paris, 1921: A Kiki Button Mystery

Financially independent Kiki Button, the narrator of Australian author Lunney’s entertaining debut and series launch, served as an Allied spy during WWI, but now she’s the quintessential modern woman of 1921. Her flamboyant close friend from the war, London tabloid copy editor Bertie Browne, gives her a job as a gossip columnist reporting from Paris. There—amid the parties, drinking, and sexual escapades—Kiki meets and models for artist Pablo Picasso, who asks for her help in finding a painting of his that has been stolen. On the same day, the elusive Dr. Fox, who was Kiki’s spymaster during the war, recruits her to find a traitor who’s spying for the Germans. As she befriends both bohemians and members of high society and uses her sharp decoding skills, she realizes that these two mysteries are somehow connected. The result is an intriguing, if predictable spy adventure rather than a whodunit. Lunney’s vibrant picture of Paris, chock-full of flapper fashion and cameos of the Lost Generation, will leave readers eager for more. [em]Agent: Sarah McKenzie, Hindsight Literary Agency (Australia). (July) [/em]