The Bones of Paris by Laurie R. King

Published by Bantam on September 10, 2013

The Bones of Paris is set in the Paris of 1929. The setting will appeal to readers who are drawn to the literary and art scene of that place and time, but the novel's focus is on a less elevated form of entertainment: the Grand-Guignol, a puppet theater of terror. Any novel set in Paris is likely to feature romance and there is some of that here, but much of it is mundane, built upon unimaginative lines like "she threw her arms around his neck." The heart of the story is a murder mystery which, although not as dull as the romance, is far from riveting.

Philippa Crosby was living in Paris when she suddenly stopped writing letters to her family. Her mother and uncle hire Harris Stuyvesant, an American private investigator living in Europe, to find her. Stuyvesant is a friend of Ernest Hemingway and hangs out with Cole Porter. Philippa has been sketched by Picasso and photographed by Man Ray (not always fully clothed). Yes, the novel is full of 1929 name dropping.

Stuyvesant learns from police inspector Emile Doucet that other young women have gone missing in Paris. Like Philippa, they had connections to "the art world." The search takes Stuyvesant to the Grand-Guignol and to a character who calls himself a "fan of death." By the novel's midpoint, three suspects have been dangled for the reader's consideration. The whodunit begins as an intriguing mystery that often becomes lost in a blizzard of words and unlikely coincidences before culminating in an unsurprising reveal that is followed by an equally unsurprising climax.

Developing alongside the mystery of Philippa's disappearance is a relationship drama. Stuyvesant reconnects with Sarah Grey, an old flame who has a coincidental link to the Grand-Guignol by virtue of her employer, Le Comte Charmentier, and an equally coincidental link to the missing persons investigation by virtue of her romance with Doucet. That, it seemed to me, was one coincidence too many. Harris and Sarah's brother, Bennett Grey, both blame themselves for an injury that left Sarah without a hand, but that subplot is too muddled to add value to the story.

Scattered through the novel are snippets of Parisian history with an emphasis on death and cemeteries and the bones of the dead. There are also snippets that take the reader into the villain's mind. Less interesting are a number of passages describing Stuyvesant's comings and goings that contribute nothing to the story while occasionally slowing the pace to a crawl. On other occasions the narrative bogs down in pace-deadening detail that does little to advance the story. The reader slogs through lists of missing persons' hair color and nationality as Stuyvesant looks for a pattern he can't find, followed by more pages describing the patterns followed by serial killers throughout history. Reading all of that struck me as being an irritating waste of my time.

The Bones of Paris seems ready to shift into a higher gear when, in the last quarter, Bennett makes an appearance in Paris. Bennett has a superpower ... well, not really, but he has a gift that isn't credibly explained. In addition to his superpower, Bennett exhibits flashes of Sherlock Holmes (perhaps it is not a coincidence that Laurie King has written Holmes novels). In any event, Bennett had the potential to enliven the story, but his deductive ability and his superpower, despite being well-hyped, are seriously underutilized. In the end, despite its enjoyable atmosphere and some moments of strong writing, The Bones of Paris does too little to overcome its weaknesses.

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