Much love,
Fen xx
Fen sealed the envelope up and put it to one side, ready to take down to reception. James had, indeed, been very generous in stumping up the cost of a room for Fen, who felt it wasn’t right to lodge with Joseph and Magda, even though they’d offered. She was just pleased that they could start their life anew, in a decent apartment and with at least a few of their old treasures and what remained of Rose’s.
It was a small battle won against the evil that had trodden the world over the last few years and Fen felt Rose would have been pleased with the outcome. When she was packing up her bedroom, Magda had softly knocked on her door and limped in. She’d packaged up a few pieces and had made Fen promise not to open the parcel until she got back to the hotel, and even then, to promise not to return any of it to the Bernheims.
‘Don’t worry, Tipper isn’t in there,’ Magda had joked as the little dog had scampered in and jumped onto the bed, too. Fen smiled, thinking about him and how much Magda doted on her new pet.
Fen looked over to where she had laid out the contents of the parcel on the bed. Her first impulse had been to ignore Magda’s stern instructions and package it all back up and return it to her, as she didn’t feel she deserved such beautiful things. But Magda had said, as they’d kissed goodbye outside the apartment, ‘Rose would want you to have those things. And those bits you chose for your parents, too. We want you to have them. It’s the least we can do to say thank you.’
The Delance was the bulk of the package. Its backing paper still slit open where the Alberti cipher had been kept. Magda had slipped a note inside it though… Since I have my own copy, this one can be yours.
Fen smiled to herself, remembering Magda and Rose laughing about how many times the teacher had made her student copy it. A thought suddenly occurred to Fen – hadn’t Rose called this “my little Impressionist”? She smiled. I bet it’s a forgery – or, as Rose would say, “an homage”. The thought didn’t make her love the painting any less, in fact, if it was a copy by Rose, Fen would love it even more, as it would be her version of the painting, her soul put into it.
Wrapped up in a silken handkerchief was one of Rose’s bejewelled hatpins, so often used to secure those bizarre turbans in place. It was made of a peacock feather studded with what must be fake emeralds and sapphires, and when Fen pressed it to her nose, she could just about smell the familiar scent of ylang-ylang and tobacco.
The last piece that Magda had saved for her was the long string of pearls that Fen had found down the side of the armchair. They had been carefully slipped into a black velvet pouch and Fen had poured the threaded beads into her hand in wonder as she’d opened it. The pearls were exquisite and, unlike most things in Rose’s apartment, quite genuine. And, what’s more, they would look fabulous paired with Rose’s old bright yellow tea dress when James treated her to tea at The Ritz tomorrow afternoon.
Were you absolutely swept away by Fen Churche in this fast-paced historical mystery? If so, don’t miss A Dangerous Goodbye – your lost love never came home after the Second World War. Would you risk everything to find out what happened to him?
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A Dangerous Goodbye
Fen bit her bottom lip. She was onto something all right. Arthur had sent her a message from beyond the grave. There was more to his death than they were telling her. Would she ever find him?
England, 1944. On a clear autumn morning in late September, time stops for Fen Churche. Waiting on the scrubbed farmhouse table for her is a letter from her cherished Arthur Melville-Hare, a brave, blue-eyed captain who was shipped off to war. Through her tears, she knows what it means – she will never see her fiancé again.
As she reads his last letter, she realises something the War Office didn’t: Fen and Arthur shared a love of crosswords, and he’s left her clever clues to his disappearance.
Desperate to find out what happened to the love of her life, she sets off for France, travelling to his last posting: a quaint village, surrounded by vineyards. But darkness lies beneath the charming surface of this countryside town, and when the beloved priest and the son of a local wine maker are found dead, it’s clear that someone wants to keep wartime secrets buried.
Can Fen stay alive long enough to find out the truth?
A totally gripping story of war, mystery, espionage and murder. Fans of Jacqueline Winspear, Charles Todd and Rhys Bowen will absolutely adore this unputdownable World War Two murder mystery.
Get it here!
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A Letter from Fliss
Dear reader,
I want to say a huge thank you for choosing to read Night Train to Paris. If you did enjoy it, and want to keep up to date with all my latest releases, just sign up at the following link. Your email address will never be shared and you can unsubscribe at any time.
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I’ve always loved art, and although I never studied anywhere as grand as the École des Beaux-Arts, I have been lucky enough to go to Paris on several occasions. Art inspires such passions in people, and so I could easily imagine how it could lead to enviously coveting what isn’t yours… and then murder!
I hope you loved reading Night Train to Paris and if you did, I would be very grateful if you could write a review. I’d love to hear what you think, and it makes such a difference helping new readers to discover one of my books for the first time.
I love hearing from my readers – you can get in touch on my Facebook page, through Twitter, Instagram or my website.
Thanks,
Fliss Chester
www.flisschester.co.uk
Books by Fliss Chester
The Fen Churche Mysteries
A Dangerous Goodbye
Night Train to Paris
Moonlit Murders
The French Escapes Romance Series
Love in the Snow
Summer at the Vineyard
Meet Me on the Riviera
Available in Audio
A Dangerous Goodbye (Available in the UK and the US)
Night Train to Paris (Available in the UK and the US)
Moonlit Murders
When a journey to New York is interrupted by missing diamonds and a body in the lifeboat, there is only one woman who can help: Fen Churche!
1945. Fen Churche follows her dreams and sails for New York. She books passage on a steam ship from France to America, excited to dance the night away in the glamorous ballroom and play games on deck. Nothing will stand in the way of her trip, not even when an eccentric heiress’s diamond tiara goes missing…
Looking forward to relaxing with her favourite crossword puzzles, Fen’s quiet passage is horribly disrupted by another crime – this time a murder. Fen finds Genie, a young actress bound for Broadway, strangled in her own cabin. With no police on board and a frantic captain, Fen decides to do a little snooping of her own.
When another body turns up, hidden in a lifeboat, whilst the ship is in the middle of the Atlantic, Fen feels sure these dreadful crimes are linked. Through her sleuthing she meets light-hearted lieutenants returning from the war, charming cabin boys and snooty first-class passengers who look down their nose at her. But it isn’t until Fen realises that one person is missing from the passenger list that she is finally on the murderer’s trail.
With only rolling waves and sea mists for company, can Fen solve the case before they dock in New York and the killer escapes for good?
You’ll be utterly hooked from page one of this warm and witty cozy! An absolute treat for fans of Agatha Christie, T.E. Kinsey and Jacqueline Winspear.
Get it here!
Acknowledgements
As always, it takes more than one person to bring a story to life, so huge thanks to my editor
at Bookouture, Maisie Lawrence, and the whole editorial and marketing teams there, too. Also, my agent Emily Sweet is always on hand for advice and support – so thank you so much as always for all you do.
I’ve been down many research rabbit holes while writing this story, but once again the brilliant book Parisiennes by Anne Sebba was a great help, with so many fascinating stories, including that of Catherine Dior. Her name may have gone down in history as a perfume (Miss Dior is reputedly named after her), but she, and women like her, gave up their freedom, and in many cases their lives, to protect their friends and defend their country. As I read more and more accounts of the bravery shown by ‘normal’ people, I was awed by what those women and men went through and I salute them. Of course, I have fictionalised the characters of Christian and Catherine Dior, and their friend Pierre Balmain in this book and, beyond what is already historical record, any account I give of them is purely imagined.
A huge thank you to my art-dealing friends, Jessica and James from J&J Rawlin, who lent me books and told me about the darker side of the wartime art world. Paintings (and silverware, china and crystal as well as jewels and objets d’art) were stolen and thousands of pieces have never been returned, but the bravery of art lovers such as Rose Valland, who worked for the Resistance and did what she could to catalogue the art being removed by the Nazis, has not been forgotten. My Rose was inspired by Valland’s story, but, of course, I had to put a few more puzzles and codes in!
My thanks as always to my family – you are my support network extraordinaire and I love you. My late grandparents were friends with the daughter of German ‘degenerate’ artists (Marg and Oskar Moll, pupils of Matisse) and I was lucky enough to grow up with pieces of Marg Moll’s striking Fauvist artwork around the house. My husband, Rupert, has spent many a walk pondering plot points with me and although I don’t take him up on all of his ideas, I’m sure a few of them have snuck in. If you spot any typos or random words, I blame the cat and his penchant for walking across my keyboard for no apparent reason except to get my attention!
Published by Bookouture in 2020
An imprint of Storyfire Ltd.
Carmelite House
50 Victoria Embankment
London EC4Y 0DZ
www.bookouture.com
Copyright © Fliss Chester, 2020
Fliss Chester has asserted her right to be identified as the author of this work.
ebook ISBN: 978-1-83888-645-5
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in any retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publishers.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, organizations, places and events other than those clearly in the public domain are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
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