Showing results by author "Peggy Kopman-Owens" in All Categories

Surviving on the streets of Paris as an artist's model had been difficult, but Laura wanted to be remembered on canvas, as Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec's paintings had been immortalized. In another place and time, Laura's alliance with the rich and powerful of Paris might have cost her head. However, this was 21st-century France, where the rich and the poor had learned to negotiate tolerance.

In a loft in the 18th Arrondissment near Montmartre, Jamie Litton has become intoxicated with his life as a member of Parisian Cafe Society. A group of artists, musicians, and poets unconditionally embrace their newest member, not knowing that this somewhat eccentric man hides a dangerous secret. His best friend Ben Foulof, a missing journalist, is on the run from a powerful news organization that wants its rogue agent back - dead or alive.

People often ask me, "How did Mrs. Duchesney become a famous Paris detective?" I tell them it should have been easy to predict that Francine Robinsworth Duchesney would find success doing something unexpected of a young woman from a small town in the American Midwest. For you see, she had never been what others in that part of the world might call "normal." When I came to Paris in search of Mrs. Duchesney, a person described to me as the legendary Paris Sleuth Extraordinaire, I did not imagine her to be the unassuming little woman seated alone on a bench in Parc Montsouris.

An airplane departs Los Angeles with 406 souls onboard but arrives in Sydney, Australia with 384 passengers, 18 cabin crew, four pilots, and...one dead man! Where did passenger no. 407 come from? With the prime minister of one of the most powerful countries onboard, his government wants to know: Could this have been an assassination attempt? Passengers want to know: Is it safe to fly with people dropping dead at 35,000 feet? Fiona Forester Chesterfield, a government fraud investigator, is contracted to keep tabs on one particular Sydney crew member, her neighbor Isabel Quince Lewis.

Among the rich of Paris, there are opportunities for thieves and forgers such as Vadim Bergeron, a predator who delights in destroying the reputations of true artists and the women who love them. However, one private detective has spent years recruiting waiters and chefs to build a reliable, although eclectic network of informants. Within days of an art theft, he can count on clues arriving during dinner.

Paris was a property owner's paradise, a place where renters far exceeded the inventory of apartments. So why had the beautiful young French woman been so willing to offer a perfect stranger, an American, her apartment and one month free rent? Yes, there were less expensive places in the world to live, but Zack's heart was set on a place of his own in the 6th Arrondissement. And yes, it did matter that it was in this particular neighborhood, where Gertrude Stein had lived and Hemingway had walked.

When an investigative journalist for a powerful news organization disappears from assignment in the Middle East, a sinister-looking man delivers the news to a mystery writer in New York. With escape to Europe and shadowy figures in pursuit, Jamie Litton will learn that his best friend has become more than a missing journalist. Ben Foulof has become a spy! Can secret codes, messages hidden in bestsellers keep them both alive? And if so… for how long?

Caveau des Trésors, where the famous and the infamous mingle freely, has been Louie Bertrand’s favorite hideaway for 30 years. So, when the famous sleuth’s table remains empty for too many nights in a row, the club’s owner suspects foul play and contacts Louie’s partner Mrs. Duchesney to begin a private investigation. When Mrs. Duchesney’s cousin Rudy also goes missing, she must enlist the help of Chief Homicide Detective Monsieur Bruno Lacosta, recruit a reporter by the name of Simon Pennington, and lastly, make peace with the one woman in Paris she does not trust.

Mitchell Irwin isn’t the sort of a man who believes in second chances. Once upon a time, this respected Shakespearean actor sold his soul to Hollywood in exchange for fame and fortune. Ignoring a warning to be careful what you wish for, he has become a cynical, world-weary celebrity searching for escape from rumors of another scandal. He finds sanctuary in a remote little fishing village populated by artists, poets, and fishermen who don’t know who he is.

In Paris, there were simply too many beautiful women hiding too many secrets, and this case was becoming too personal and too intriguing for Mrs. Duchesney to solve on her own. There was only one name on the engraved invitation: Louie Arnaud Bertrand, making it perfectly clear that Mrs. Duchesney was not welcome at Chateau de Robinesque-Roussel. Investigating the very delicate nature of this mystery would become her sleuthing partner Louie's first solo assignment.

“Does the past change the future or does the future change the past?” Romance. Suspense. Mystery. Set in the Ireland, early 1970s. Strangely, for more than a year, photo-journalist Natalie McKenna has been dreaming of another woman’s life. This no-nonsense 30-year veteran of armed conflicts arrives in Ireland prepared to document “the troubles” in Northern Ireland, but totally unprepared to fall in love with a man she was predestined to meet.

In Paris, two bodies have been found floating in the river. Side-by-side, the two friends are photographed smiling up into the heavens as if this had been nothing more than another Saturday spent happily fishing. Later, a third unclaimed body will turn up at the morgue. When the fourth appears, it is time for Paris sleuths Mrs. Duchesney and Louie Bertrand to get involved.

People often ask me, “How did Louie Bertrand become a famous Paris sleuth?” For our first interview, Louie Bertrand agreed to meet me at a cafe at one o'clock in the afternoon for le petit dejeuner. This should have been my first clue, for it shouted this artist turned sleuth was a night bloomer. From my interviews, I would learn Louie Bertrand and his sleuthing partner, Mrs. Duchesney, were as different as...well, as different as Paris in the daytime and Paris at night.

The stamp market provides a perfect setting for a shadowy figure from Moscow, whose real interest in Paris may not be stamps. The closed case of the dead diplomat and his dubious widow refuses to stay closed, when evidence suggests the Egyptian statue is not the only priceless item missing from their apartment. In Deauville, France, Louie searches for two married sisters, traveling sans husbands. While in Paris, Mrs. Duchesney receives a coded invitation to rendezvous with a dead poet.

The agency never admitted its mistakes. It simply deleted them. After Ben disappeared from his assignment in the Middle East, his status was changed to IDX and the fix was ordered. His cover as an international journalist had given him access to the world and to almost everyone in it. This was, perhaps, their greatest fear. Ben Foulof was one of a rare breed of journalists who wrote only the truth. - Jamie Litton discovers that the worst thing anyone can say to his best friend is never change.

The rich are not like us. When it rains, they simply fly away, taking their secrets with them. On the Cote d'Azur, a missing journalist becomes an insider, offering his best friend a very special invitation to leave Paris for a masquerade ball at the Darimus Mansion in Antibes. New Year's Eve on the French Riviera? In the company of the rich and royal? How could Jamie Litton say no? It is more than this mystery writer could imagine. And as Ben Foulof has planned, more than his enemies had expected.

Ignoring his best friend's warning to stay out of Paris, mystery writer Jamie Litton leaves the Cote d'Azur and returns to Paris to investigate yet another unexpected death and the mystery evolving at Maxmillian's apartment. While Jamie is in Paris, learning the secrets of his eclectic Cafe Society, his best friend Ben Foulof goes it alone in South America to investigate rumors still clouding a murder discovered in the Paris antique store L'Indice.

A murder has been committed in Paris in an antique store named L' Indice. The store's strange history of unsolved murders and robberies began long before the WWII rumors of masterpieces stolen from castles on the Rhine. Jamie Litton, whose mystery writer's imagination won't let dead men, or secrets, rest in peace, moves in upstairs with hopes of discovering the truth for his next best seller.

Danger awaits best friends on the island of Malta, where one will be accused of murder and the other of being a spy on the run. A missing journalist cannot tell the world he is still alive by becoming a mystery writer's alibi. When Hiromi came back to Paris to settle an old score, she had no idea her target might be hiding on the island of Malta. But, now, she has a chance to redeem her reputation by neutralizing a rogue agent and capturing the mystery writer who hides agency secrets in his novels.