The Prisoner of the Riviera

December 15, 2013
Law is the first to admit that as a straight, married woman from Connecticut, she's an unlikely conduit for the notoriously wild, gay British painter Francis Bacon, portraitist of the enraged. Yet artist-sleuth Francis, unflappable and acidly witty, is the star of her latest nimble historical mystery series. The first installment, Fires of London (2012), takes place during the London Blitz. In this continuation, the war has just ended, and Francis is saddled with a serious gambling debt he's happy to pay off by delivering a package to a widow on the Riviera. Off he goes with his crafty old nanny and Arnold, his rich lover. But instead of having fun in the sun, Francis gets caught in a sticky web of murders. With his life in danger and his passport confiscated by the police, Francis has to trust a handsome bicycle mechanic and two charming ladies with surprisingly devious talents. Law's crisp, wry humor, surreptitious revelations of France's deep partisan wounds, and great affection for the marvelously resourceful, suave, and irreverent Francis make for a delectably clever tale.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)