Letters from Paris: A Novel by Juliet Blackwell

               I go through these spurts where I become highly addicted to putting books on hold at the library.  Some people go shopping.  I put things on hold at the library.  Letters from Paris was one of the many things I put on hold.  Since I have really enjoyed Juliet Blackwell’s Witchcraft Mystery series, I decided to give one of her stand-alone novels a try when I was on one of my holding binges.  It took a little bit to read, though, because the problem with putting so many things on hold is getting through everything once I have them.

                Claire Broussard is tired of her life in Chicago.  Even though she did whatever she could to escape her small Louisiana hometown, Chicago is not the right place for her.  That’s why when Claire hears her grandmother is ill, she quits her job, dumps her boyfriend, and moves back to Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana.

                After returning home, Claire comes across a mask of a woman hidden in her grandmother’s attic.  It is a broken death mask, and one that Claire remembers being fascinated by as a child.  Along with the mask is a letter.  It is unknown as to who the letter is from or what the words mean, but it is something that has always gone along with the mask.  Something to add to the mystery of who the mask could possibly be.

                On her death bed, knowing Claire’s interest in the mask, Claire’s grandmother tells her to go to Paris and find out about it.  She then gives the cryptic message that while there Claire may find a secret.  Already wondering about the mask, Claire doesn’t have any idea what secret her grandmother could be talking about.  Still, despite these mysteries, once her grandmother passes away, and without a job to return to, Claire goes to Paris.

                After doing some traditional tourist adventures, Claire finds the atelier shop where the mask was created, and where her great-grandfather bought it during the second world war.  The shop is the Lombardi Family Mold-Makers and it has been in existence since 1871.  The mask in question is one of their biggest sellers and is called L’Inconnue de la Seine, 1898, or the Unknown Woman of the Seine, 1898.  With the mask having been initially created so long ago, no one alive knows who the woman is.  The trip isn’t a complete disappointment, though, because while she is there, Claire is able to help the shopkeeper, Giselle, with the non-French speaking customers.  Having grown up speaking Cajon, Claire’s French is not exactly the same as Giselle’s and her ornery cousin Armand’s, but it is enough to help.

                  Claire’s ability to speak both English and French is so helpful that Giselle asks Claire to work in the shop until she and Armand go away on holiday.  Needing something to do while in Paris, Claire agrees to help in the shop in exchange for living in a small room there as well.  She does not realize that Armand, the mold-maker, lives there too.  While his surliness is a turn-off, Claire is willing to put up with it because it takes her away from the noisy establishment she was staying in before.  It also puts her in direct contact with the only place that might help her figure out the true identity of the “Unknown Woman”.

                While I’ve really only talked about Claire’s story so far, this novel is actually split up into three stories.  The two main ones are Claire’s and Sabine’s, a young woman from 1898.  The third story, which is very infrequent, is about Claire’s great-grandfather, and explains how the mask got into the attic in the first place.  By having all three stories, the reader gets the whole story of the mask, while it remains unclear as to whether Claire ever will.  Which, with all the other good things going on around her, probably ends up being fine.  With a tragic past of her alcoholic father trying to kill her, and a dead mother who may have also tried to kill her, Claire could use some happiness in her life, especially when she finds out the truth behind the secret her grandmother was alluding to.

                As much as I enjoyed Claire’s story, I think it may have been Sabine’s that I kept looking forward to.  A poor girl from the country, Sabine takes a job as an artist’s model.  Now she is regularly fed and has a roof over her head, but she is also beaten.  It is a fate Sabine had been warned about before she took the job, and it makes me wonder how many artist models went through what Sabine went through, if not worse.  As a lover of art, reading Sabine’s story definitely makes me think about the works I have seen in a different way.

                Something else I enjoyed about Sabine’s story was all the encounters with different artists of the time.  So much seemed to be happening in the artworld then, with famous artists and different techniques coming out.  One artist that was mentioned I had never heard of, to my knowledge.  Her name was Camille Claudel.  She was not in the story too much, but the little she was, it was clear she cared about Sabine’s welfare.  This makes me wonder if Ms. Claudel was this caring in real life.  I don’t know if there is a way to find out, but I’m sure I can find some of her artwork.  Maybe through that I can figure out more about Ms. Claudel, because I sure am intrigued to learn more.