The Ghosts of Paris

January 1, 2022

Following up the LJ-starred series starter The War Widow, an international best seller, this new work again features war correspondent-turned-private investigator Billie Walker. It's 1947, and Billie is hired to track down a missing husband, following a trail through London and Paris that reminds her painfully of her own husband, gone missing in the fighting.

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April 4, 2022
Set in 1947, Moss’s intriguing sequel to 2020’s The War Widow finds business booming for Billie Walker, Sydney, Australia’s “most famous—or was it infamous?—female inquiry agent.” Billie’s new client, Vera Montgomery, needs to find her husband, Richard, who disappeared toward the end of 1945 after acting as an information official at the Australia in Peace and War exposition in Paris. Until Richard is found or declared dead, Mrs. Montgomery’s financial and social situation is in limbo. Billie, who was a war correspondent in Paris, seems ideally suited for the job. At twice her daily fee, Billie and her tall, handsome secretary, Sam Baker, head for Paris. Billie’s search is colored by her desire to find her own husband, photojournalist Jack Rake. In 1944, he too disappeared in Paris, and Billie has just received news that a mutual friend believes she spotted him in late 1946. Moss does a good job portraying how Australian Aboriginals and women were treated at the time, but the neat resolutions to the missing men cases, which involve little effort on Billie’s part, come as something of a letdown. Historical romance fans will find a lot to like. Agent: Chris Bucci, Cooke McDermid Literary.

May 15, 2022
Readers who enjoy wartime stories that combine taut suspense, romance, and larger-than-life characters will be delighted to discover Moss' new book. Australian Billie Walker was a foreign correspondent during WWII. Perhaps as an antidote to the daily dangers she faced, Billie married her fellow correspondent Jack Rake. But the pair were separated, and at the end of the war, it appeared Jack was dead. In despair, Billie returns to Sydney and reopens her father's private-investigation agency. After chasing down and killing a Nazi who had a hand in instigating the death camps, Billie is now on the hit list of Odessa, the organization supporting Nazis who escaped the Nuremberg trials and fled Germany under new identities. When she accepts a new case--to find a missing husband who seems to have disappeared in Paris--she has no idea that her investigation will lead to a shocking revelation against a backdrop of betrayal and blackmail. The romance of Paris, the adrenaline rush of a deadly chase, a soul-shattering secret, and a resilient heroine make for a gripping read.

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Starred review from June 1, 2022

Postwar Sydney, London, and Paris come alive in Moss's intense sequel to The War Widow, emphasizing political dangers in the aftermath of World War II. In 1947 Sydney, the detective agency of war correspondent-turned-private eye Billie Walker is finding its way, mostly working cases for women who want to locate or divorce their husbands. A new client seeks out Billie and her assistant Sam: the wealthy Vera Montgomery, hoping to track down her ad exec husband who has disappeared while abroad. She wants to send Billie and Sam to Europe to find her husband, and she'll pay twice their daily rate--fortuitously for Billie who's also searching for her own husband, a war photographer who disappeared in 1944 during the Warsaw Uprising. On arriving in Paris, Billie learns that Richard Montgomery was also a photographer, one who used his camera to uncover secrets and may have disappeared to save his own life. She soon encounters resistance from Richard's friends and from a secretive Parisian group that's threatened by Billie's reputation as a Nazi hunter. VERDICT A richly detailed historical mystery that spotlights social issues like postwar persecution of LGBTQ communities in both Sydney and Paris. Readers of Sulari Gentill's "Rowland Sinclair" mysteries, set in interwar Sydney, will appreciate Moss's riveting series.--Lesa Holstine

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