The Paris Key by Juliet Blackwell

I like stories set in two time lines, two characters, two cities. This ticked all the boxes. Alternately the story of Angela (mother) and Genevieve (daughter) set in America and Paris and in two distinct time frames made for a evocative, emotional, beautiful story.

On the death of her mother and uncle, Genevieve returns to Paris to try to organise her life, her thoughts and her future. With an interest in the art of locksmiths and a natural talent for it, she takes over her late uncle's shop in the heart of Paris and tries to sort out what she needs to do next. Her marriage to Jason is obviously over, and she is very unsettled as to why her mother behaved the way she did. She knows there are secrets but with her father dead and her brother oblivious to the more emotional parts of her parents lives, she knows she has to try to ferret out what she feels was some hidden mystery and begin to be at peace with herself. What she unravels is something much bigger than she would have imagined and several unexplained mysteries in her life become much clearer.

With several characters who were stories in themselves (Phillipe for one), the Paris setting, the detailed descriptiveness of Paris would influence anyone to make a beeline for this city! and the alternating stories told in alternating time frames all put together make for a book you cannot put down.

Thank you Edelweiss for sending me this book.