Why Kirsty Manning thinks 1930’s Paris is a good idea for Crime Fiction

Read a piece from Kirsty Manning about the setting of her glamorous new book.

Like many readers, I grew up on a crime diet of Agatha Christie and Kerry Greenwood’s sassy Phryne Fisher. I was smitten by the glamorous settings of grand estates, luxury yachts, haute couture and fine jewellery. Given I adore Paris and have set many books there, it was obvious Paris needed to take centre stage my new sexy crime series. 

Why Paris? I wanted to feel joy and delight—to write something loaded with panache and a feel-good factor paired with heavenly food, masses of couture, elegant houses and hotels

and endless flutes of Champagne. I’m guessing my readers will enjoy similar fun distractions.

Pre-World War II Paris was an intriguing blend of outlandish decadence, playful design and a defiant stance in Paris that the dark days of war were behind them. It’s an intoxicating space to play where both the writer and readers know the darkness that lies on the horizon, but the characters and Paris of the late 1930’s do not. This era allows me to build a mystery in Murder in Paris with both decadence and soul, nudging readers into darkness, without leaving readers there for too long. 

I didn’t want a traditional, dour, problematic detective so I thought a writer might be a nice twist. Obviously, I needed the main character to be a smart, accomplished woman and fortunately I have many, many such women in my life to draw inspiration from. An honourable mention to my dear friend, Emmy-award-winning journalist and foreign correspondent (and my favourite American) Sara James, for whom my heroine is named.

Charlie James is based on the early female correspondents at the turn of the century who were not given formal accreditation nor the support of their male colleagues. The bones of Charlie’s character are drawn from Australian reporter Louise ‘Louie’ Mack, borrowing elements (and plotlines) from other notable reporters like the New Yorker’s hilarious and savvy Paris-based correspondent Janet Flanner, Clare Hollingworth (who reported on World War Two in Poland), Dorothy Lawrence (who dressed as a male sapper and served in the trenches in France), and the indomitable American Martha Gellhorn. Charlie is without question a feminist, with views that sometimes surprise the French—and her family and friends.

So there you have it: a dreamy city heaving with silky mystery, strong inspiring women at the forefront of journalistic reportage all washed down with Champagne and caviar. Murder in Paris is my most decadent and beguiling book yet. 

Murder in Paris by Kirsty Manning is out now.

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Murder in Paris

by Kirsty Manning

A glamorous historical mystery of murder, fashion, food, secrets, and danger in 1930s Paris.

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