The Paris Winter: A Novel

Written by Imogen Robertson

Narrated by Rebecca Night

There is but one Paris.
Vincent Van Gogh

Maud Heighton came to Lafond's famous Academie to paint, and to flee the constraints of her small English town. It took all her courage to escape, but Paris, she quickly realizes, is no place for a light purse. While her fellow students enjoy the dazzling decadence of the Belle Epoque, Maud slips into poverty. Quietly starving, and dreading another cold Paris winter, she stumbles upon an opportunity when Christian Morel engages her as a live-in companion to his beautiful young sister, Sylvie.
Maud is overjoyed by her good fortune. With a clean room, hot meals, and an umbrella to keep her dry, she is able to hold her head high as she strolls the streets of Montmartre. No longer hostage to poverty and hunger, Maud can at last devote herself to her art.
But all is not as it seems. Christian and Sylvie, Maud soon discovers, are not quite the darlings they pretend to be. Sylvie has a secret addiction to opium and Christian has an ominous air of intrigue. As this dark and powerful tale progresses, Maud is drawn further into the Morels' world of elegant deception. Their secrets become hers, and soon she is caught in a scheme of betrayal and revenge that will plunge her into the darkness that waits beneath this glittering city of light.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Macmillan Audio
• Release date: Nov 18, 2014
• ISBN: 9781427251961

Imogen Robertson

Imogen Robertson grew up in Darlington, studied Russian and German at Cambridge and now lives in London. She directed for film, TV and radio before becoming a full-time author and won the Telegraph’s ‘First thousand words of a novel’ competition in 2007 with the opening of Instruments of Darkness, her first novel. Her other novels also featuring the Georgian detective duo of Harriet Westerman and Gabriel Crowther are Anatomy of Murder, Island of Bones, Circle of Shadows and Theft of Life. In 2013 she published The Paris Winter, a story of betrayal and darkness set during the Belle Époque. She has been short-listed for the CWA Historical Dagger three times and once for the Dagger in the Library Award. Imogen was one of our judges for the Solstice Shorts competition and provided us with Time travel/ ghost story, Grange Lodge Which she read for us at the festival and is published in Solstice Shorts, Sixteen Stories about Time.

Reviews for The Paris Winter

[silent0042 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Take a bit of romance, add a helping of Christian values, combine it with old-west charm and you have this book. This book took me a few chapters to hit the point where I had to turn the page to see what was next. The story spends a bit too much time on character development and not nearly enough on action/vivid description for my tastes, but nevertheless the story is a good read. The characters are easy to fall in love with (or despise...depending upon their purpose). The plot is somewhat p...more Take a bit of romance, add a helping of Christian values, combine it with old-west charm and you have this book. This book took me a few chapters to hit the point where I had to turn the page to see what was next. The story spends a bit too much time on character development and not nearly enough on action/vivid description for my tastes, but nevertheless the story is a good read. The characters are easy to fall in love with (or despise...depending upon their purpose). The plot is somewhat predictable, but not in such a way as to detract the reader from wanting to continue. Definitely something I will be passing around to fellow readers in my family. *inserting legal mumbo-jumbo** Thanks to Goodreads First Reads for this book

[tarenn_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

THE GUNSMITH'S GALLANTRY by Susan Page Davis is a delightful Inspirational Romance set in 1886 Fergus, Idaho. It is the second in the Ladies' Shooting Club series but can be read as a stand alone. It is well written with details and depth. It has courage, faith, friendship, betrayal, a tender romance, and wit. The characters are charming, witty and will hold your interest. They cause an uproar or two and definite mayhem. The Ladies' Shooting Club is several of the town's women learning how to shoot and become more confidant. In this story our hero is the gunsmith, Hiram, he is shy,a widower, handsome,and best friend's with the sheriff(he is in love with Hiram's sister).He is falling in love with our heroine, the pretty, Ms Libby, who herself is a widow. Hiram is so shy and quiet his sister-in-law, Rose, comes to town with marriage on her mind to him. He has no desire for her for he is in love with Libby(he doesn't quiet know that yet). This story has many facets to it. We have several plots going on, but in the end it all comes together. This is a witty, tender fast paced page turner story. You will enjoy from beginning to end. I would recommend this book. If you have not read the first in this series, The Sheriff's Surrender, I would recommend you pick it up, you will not disappointed. This book was received for review and details can be found at My Book Addiction and More and Barbour Publishing.