April in Paris, 1921

May 7, 2018
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. Agent: Sarah McKenzie, Hindsight Literary Agency (Australia).

June 1, 2018

After working as a nurse during the Great War, Kiki Button, the daughter of a wealthy Australian landowner, is back in Europe. She's a gossip columnist, drinking, partying, and sleeping her way around postwar Paris. Then, two men call in favors. Picasso, for whom Kiki had modeled, asks her to find a stolen portrait of his wife. And Dr. Fox, the British surgeon who recruited Kiki as a spy during the war, gives her an assignment. There's a mole involved with the Germans, someone who threatens British interests. Kiki's on a timetable to expose the mole, or her childhood friend will be accused of treason. The true mystery about this debut is why it's called a mystery at all. It's an atmospheric, verbose historical novel that foreshadows the next war while reveling in the debauched bohemianism of Paris between the wars. Although Kiki plays detective and spy, the emphasis here is on her party-girl lifestyle; spying is just part of the excitement. VERDICT Mystery fans may prefer Kerry Greenwood's Phryne Fisher or Kelli Stanley's Miranda Corbie as a detective. [Previewed in Lisa Levy's "Crime Fiction's Girl Power, '" LJ 4/15/18.]--Lesa Holstine, Evansville Vanderburgh P.L., IN

Copyright 2018 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from May 15, 2018
Katherine King Button, aka Kiki Button, an Australian debutante before WWI, and a nurse and spy during the war, trades her parents' insistence on a settle-down-marriage-have-babies future for the freedom of Paris. Wangling a job as gossip columnist for her impeccable friend and newspaper editor Bertie, Kiki settles into a garret with a bed and very little else, content to smoke and hang her bare feet out the window. Two parties a week, and she's on her wave?the artists, the authors, the fawning new men in her bed. In the wake of the war, people are weary of strife, glad to be alive, unwilling to sleep with nightmares, and unsure of what comes next. Kiki has a past that readers learn about, one aching bit at a time, notably when her former spymaster demands that she help find a double agent or face arrest. Meanwhile, Picasso hires her, first as a model and then as a detective, to find a missing painting. Button is naughtier than Kerry Greenwood's Phryne Fisher, as strong as Suzanne Arruda's Jade del Cameron, and every bit as clever as Susan Elia MacNeal's Maggie Hope. This thoroughly entertaining, delightfully witty debut is imbued with Paris' unique ambiance and will have readers eagerly awaiting Button's next adventure.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)