The Paris Portrait: A dual-timeline historical art mystery

The Paris Portrait is the third in Heidi Eljarbo’s Fabiola Bennett series, and I think it’s the best yet!

Fabiola and her two dearest friends, Cary and Pippa, are taking a vacation to visit Fabiola’s brother Eivind in France. But even on vacation, intrigue finds them. Eivind shows Fabiola an old recipe book he picked up at auction and asks for her help interpreting the old handwriting in the book. Fabiola realizes the writer of the mysterious notes was painter Élisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun. And the notes refer to a lost painting by Le Brun of Queen Marie Antoinette. Well, you know when there’s an art mystery to be solved, Fabiola is off and running.

What a fascinating story! I don’t know much about art, and y’all know I love books where I learn things. Heidi Eljarbo gave me an education on Le Brun and Marie Antoinette and some of the history of the French Revolution, and it was marvelous. And it didn’t come across all lecture-ish, but rather felt like I was getting a bird’s-eye view of history.

The action moves easily between 1973 (sort of modern day, at least in my mind!) and the late eighteenth century, and Eljarbo gives us some interesting characters and a most engaging mystery. With every clue Fabiola and friends track down, more questions arise, and before the tale is told, danger comes closer than any of them would like.

It was fun getting to know Fabiola’s family a little better. I love that Eivind and his wife run a bakery. The descriptions were so wonderful, I could almost smell the pastries! And getting to see Auntie Fabsi interact with her niece and nephew was just delightful. For those of you hoping for more on the romance front, you’ll be glad to know there are several little glimmers of hope for a future of more than just friendship for Fabiola and Cary. That made me smile!

The Paris Portrait is another winner from Heidi Eljarbo, highly recommended for fans of art, history, mystery, and a good dual-timeline story!

Disclaimer: I received a complimentary copy of this book from JustRead Publicity Tours. I was not required to leave a review. All opinions here are mine, and I don’t say nice things about books I don’t actually like.