Post WWI Paris is a place where artists, old soldier, and White Russians drown their war memories in parties and booze.

Kiki is escaping the confines of her wealthy Australian upbringing and fleeing her war nursing memories as a gossip columnist for an old friend. Kiki looks like the other party girls as she flirts and drinks, but these hide a deeply wounded person. When Picasso asks her to recover a stolen painting, she finds the intrigue exciting. However, when her old spy handler, Fox, returns she isn't sure she wants his particular brand of excitement and danger, but she will do anything to help a friend.

This first in the series captures the post-war Lost Generation false glamourous front.

What a deliciously decadent story! As a big fan of historical fiction set in the 1920s, was I instantly intrigued by the story of APRIL IN PARIS, 1921 by Tessa Lunney, and I was thrilled to discover how wonderful the book was right from the very start. Let's start with the fact that very early on in the book there is a ménage à trois between our heroine, Kiki Button, Picasso and another woman. I'm not a fan of reading about very lengthy sex scenes, but Tessa Lunney manages to write this part and other parts with enough sensuality and without being too graphic that even I liked them. Now, this is not a story about just sex, but it's part of the story since Kiki Button is, how shall I put it, not a prude and it's the 20s in Paris.

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I knew I had to read this because it punched all my buttons: Paris, mystery, and historical fiction. The first in what is sure to be an entertaining series, this novel sets the scene of Jazz Age Paris with captivating descriptions of the period's fashion, music, food and art, juxtaposed with war-weary Parisians and political rumblings. Kiki Button is the likeable and bravely witty heroine of this mystery/spy story that combines nightly parties of drinking, decadence, and dancing with intrigue, codes, and danger.

What makes this a standout novel is Kiki's honest vulnerability and compassion. Yes it's a mystery with suspicious characters and danger lurking down dark stairways. But the author provides depth and gravity by exploring several characters’ personal grief in dealing with the aftermath of war.

I received an advance reader's copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
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There are many, many things to like about this book. Paris! in the roaring twenties, with more Bright Young Things than you could poke a stick at. I loved the fashions, the streetscapes, the cafe scenes, the cocktails, and the wonderful way that Lunney creates the sense of a generation trying to put the horrors and privations of the Great War behind them. The myster(ies) within the story are interesting and intriguing.
The heroine, Kiki Button, is embarking on a career as a spy, detective, and gossip columnist, not necessarily in that order. An Australian who nursed on the Western Front during the war, Kiki is escaping the 'get-married-and-make-grandchildren-asap' pressure of her rich parents. This she does by pretending to embark on another London season while actually going to live in (almost) complete freedom in Paris. There is a great sense of liberation on all levels, though the ever-growing threat of fascism rears its ugly head, in keeping with the inter-war years setting.
There are some beautiful poetic and arresting images (Lunney is also a poet): 'The sky was purple like lilacs, like royalty, like a bruised mouth, as it passed slowly into darkness.'
*Spoilers below*
Now, to the list of things that may not sit well with some readers. There is an awful lot of regurgitated poetry in the guise of spy code. In such an adventure (think Christie's Tommy and Tuppence, or Greenwood's Phryne Fisher), the weight of this code feels a bit stodgy, interrupting the flow of the plot. It's almost as if it belongs in a different book.
Ditto the omnipresent sex scenes. Yes, we are in the age of liberation, but not every reader will enjoy the sweet, juicy, pan-sexual exploits of our heroine. (Mind you, if you love this stuff, Lunney does it very well!). All the cheerful, exhausting sex is carried out with gusto and not a whit of emotional connection, unless it's 'an old lover' like Bertie, to whom Kiki is very affectionate. In the spirit of female freedom, Kiki is rather predatory - at one stage, she 'valiantly assaults' the 'virtue' of a tasty young man 'for the rest of the night to great success'. This just made me feel a bit sick, thinking that it was rather like the old gumshoe detective books of the 50s and 60s, where a ditective was not successful unless he regularly seduced a succession of 'broads'. Hmm. Some of the characters appear to be no more than sex toys for Kiki, and that made me uncomfortable. On the other hand, checking thru the reviews shows me that the vast majority of readers will lap up the excitement and wit of these encounters with great pleasure.
There is also a fair bit of name-dropping, no doubt situating Kiki in the important circles of the time, but it didn't feel very Australian - it seemed a bit show-off that Kiki has a threesome with Picasso and his lover, that she hobnobs with Paul Nash, etc. But not with the love of her life, Tom-Tom...Interesting.
The further development of Kiki in subsequent books (I do trust there are more in the pipeline, as this one is sub-titled 'a Kiki Button mystery') will be most interesting to watch.
Try it. You will most like absolutely love it.
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