The Clock Struck Murder is the second Lost in Paris historical mystery by Betty Webb featuring amateur sleuth and American expat artist Zoe Barlow set in 1920s Paris. Released 9th April 2024 by Sourcebooks on their Poisoned Pen Press imprint, it's 320 pages and is available in paperback, audio, and ebook formats. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links throughout.
Set against the backdrop of the 1924 Olympic games in Paris, expat Zoe is resourceful, intelligent, and plucky. She's surviving as best she can, but life as an artist is fraught and rarely affluent in the long term. She's again drawn into investigating a murder, this time a stallholder at a local outdoor street market.
MC Zoe is somewhat morally ambiguous (she's sleeping with a married man whose comatose wife she knows and reads to). The author is knowledgeable about the Paris of the 20's and much of the background research makes it into the book which makes it occasionally feel a bit cluttered and chaotic.
Overall however, it's well rendered and engaging, with complex characters and a mystery interwoven with real life historical events.
Three and a half stars.
Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.
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