The Paris Affair is an edge-of-your-seat psychological thriller set amidst the contemporary art scene in Paris.
Harper Brown is a British journalist in her late 20s, working as an arts-culture columnist for a Paris online magazine, The Paris Observer. Her ambition is to succeed as an investigative crime journalist, a goal she's pursuing doggedly after wasting years supporting a former partner, a musician, who dumped her as soon as his band found success. Her love of true-crime podcasts has enabled her to amass an intriguing armoury of self-preservation and crime-busting skills, detailed through her blog How Not to Get Murdered.
When she attempts to obtain a somewhat unorthodox preview of a new art exhibition at a private gallery, she has no idea that she'll soon be putting theory into action, drawn into a complex web of murder, suspicion and intrigue in the underground art trade.
Although billed as a mystery-thriller, it wasn't until about the one-third point of the book that the psychological tension took hold. Up to that point, Harper struck me as a rather pathetic and self-absorbed character, stuck in a behavioural rut. With no apparent sense of irony, she uses her resentment for the way she was manipulated by her former partner Harrison to justify her ruthless treatment of any potential future partners. Meanwhile, she's unable to resist the temptation of stalking him and his new partner online.
The action really picks up after she meets beguiling American artist Noah X., and accepts an invitation to attend a party at his Montmartre apartment. She's among the last to see Noah's life model, Sabine, alive before she disappears and is found dead in woodland outside Paris. Sabine's death mirrors the circumstances surrounding the recent death of another young Parisian woman, and Harper senses that she might be in the perfect position to write a career-making scoop! Harper's investigative techniques are not quite as subtle as she thinks, however, and she soon realises that she's caught the attention of some very shady characters, who'll stop at nothing to protect their secrets.
The story gathers momentum towards a dizzying crescendo as Harper races against time to prove Noah's innocence and identify the real killer or killers.
The Paris Affair was a quick and enjoyable read, with an engaging storyline and a glamorous setting. Pip Drysdale uses misdirection and suspense skilfully to create an edge-of-your-seat final act.
I hadn't read anything by Pip Drysdale previously, and feel I'm a bit late to the party! My enjoyment of The Paris Affair was such that I'll be seeking out her other titles soon. I'd recommend it to all readers who enjoy spunky female protagonists and lots of action in their thriller reads.
My thanks to the author, Pip Drysdale, publisher Simon & Schuster Australia and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this title.

4.5★s
The Paris Affair is the third novel by Australian author, Pip Drysdale. Three weeks into her new job as arts and culture writer for online English-language magazine The Paris Observer, Harper Brown is desperate to please her editor-in-chief, Hyacinth Cromwell-Scott, hoping she might get a chance at the more prestigious crime column.

Her piece on American artist Noah X’s exhibition is criticised for lacking personal details; luckily Harper has formed a connection with the artist and is confident that she can get what’s needed at his private party. But that doesn’t go quite like she expected…

When a young female art model goes missing, Harper realises she was one of the last people to see her alive, at that party, but is conflicted, as the woman has something that has the potential to threated her career. When the body turns up, Harper begins to suspect the person who compromised her situation.

What sort of person is Drysdale’s protagonist? Previously burned in a relationship, Harper likes to keep her encounters with men uncomplicated, no strings attached. Having dropped her most recent three-day-old relationship as he was getting too clingy, she finds herself in an indiscriminate liaison that could jeopardise her career. Yet, with a killer out there picking off women at random, she reacts to her job worries by distracting herself listening to a murder podcast and hooking up for a quick session with an unknown man met online.

Considering she’s under pressure from her editor and having to deal with a very competitive colleague, she is quite clever, innovative and resourceful, although she has a poor grasp of the correct use of personal pronouns considering she is meant to be a writer, but perhaps this is a common trait for those below a certain age.

She is surprised to later find herself taping over a CCTV camera, picking a lock and photographing documents. Nor has the research for the blog she used to write (How not to get murdered), which included freeing yourself when bound by duct tape, escaping a car boot and opening handcuffs, sufficiently prepared her for being in those situations herself.

An interesting sidebar to the story is the attitude of the French police to missing persons: “in France, the police won’t search for you unless there are clear signs of foul play or you’re a minor. Which means that approximately one thousand unidentified bodies are found in France each year, compared with around sixty-six in Britain, which has a similar population. Most of the time the DNA from those bodies isn’t recorded either.” Lesson: don’t go missing in France, unless you want to.

Once again, Drysdale gives the reader a fast-paced thriller with plenty of turns and not a few red herrings, an excellent twist and a nail-biting climax. A gripping read.
This unbiased review is from an uncorrected proof copy provided by NetGalley and Simon & Schuster Australia.