October 15, 2023
Ida, a talented but timid painter, is agog the first time she sets foot in the salon of the great Gertrude Stein in 1920s Paris. The art! The music! The frisson of conflict between Surrealists, Modernists, and Futurists! When Stein's beloved Alice is kidnapped, Ida's dilettante husband Teddy claims to be a Chicago detective and is asked to investigate, then goes missing himself. Suddenly, Ida and cheese-loving banker Tom (T. S.) Eliot are thrust together in the city of lights, and Ida finds she is more capable than she ever knew. Archambeau's cast in this glittering, venturesome historical mystery is full to bursting with real places and figures from the Lost Generation. James Joyce beguiles, Shakespeare and Company warms the heart, Ernest Hemingway broods, Alexander Calder crafts Ida a hairpin, George Antheil's symphony draws malicious attention, and several real historical figures are cast as devious criminals. While sometimes stretching the bounds of credulity, this is an entertaining romp with zing, ideal for readers who romanticize the Jazz Age and dream of rubbing elbows with Picasso over a Pernod.
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November 1, 2023
DEBUT Poet Archambeau's first novel is set in post-World War I Paris. Chicago artist Ida Caine travels with her new husband, Teddy, to the City of Light. She wants to paint, and he wants to write. They soon find their way to the salon of Gertrude Stein and Alice Toklas, where Teddy is accepted readily, Ida is invited to the wives' group, and they encounter a variety of painters, poets, and writers. One day, Alice disappears, and Gertrude asks Teddy to find her. Then Teddy vanishes as well, and Ida takes up the search, enlisting her new friends. They are quickly drawn into a web of lies and danger, including a terrorist plan to destroy key buildings. VERDICT With a multilayered plot, real figures from Jazz Age Paris, and puzzles for Ida and her friends to figure out, this novel will appeal to fans of Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code or Sulari Gentill's A Few Right Thinking Men.--Victoria Kollar
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