“The Minotaur in Paris,” a historical suspense novel

The question every novel asks: what if…?

As a child growing up in suburban America, my dreams were shaped by my mother’s dazzling memories of studying abroad in Paris 1936. Years later, reading in her travel diary about seeing Nazi officers strolling on the Champs Élysées and meeting Jewish musicians who’d fled from German repression, one question haunted me: why did no one stop Hitler when there was still time?

Later, when I came to live in Paris, I found the prewar and wartime periods still painfully alive: in the photos of smiling children, killed in Auschwitz, still displayed in my local rug shop window; in recollections of a deported family who’d never returned to their flat just above mine; in the memories of old people who had lived through France’s darkest hour. More and more that same question haunted me: why was Hitler not stopped before the catastrophe of World War II?

History books provide many answers. War-weary nations appeased Hitler, hoping that, like a spoiled child. he would be content with annexing a few neighboring countries. The Soviet Union, with its goal of worldwide communism, seemed to pose a greater threat than Germany. And, powerful industrialists in every country actively supported Hitler in re-arming for war, as fascism seemed to provide the ideal climate for business.

My own answer is in fictional form. What would you or I have done if we lived in Paris 1936? Hearing rumors of war, would we have been complacent or naive, simply going about our business while hoping that somehow it would all work out? Would we have had the foresight to flee to safety before things got worse? Or would we have had the courage to stand up and oppose the monster threatening to destroy our lives?

After all, what can one person do in the face of evil?

What the book is about

1936. In the depths of the Depression, a beautiful young New Yorker clings to her dull job at a fashion photography studio. But when she finds among her murdered boyfriend’s possessions a camera and a ticket to France, she impulsively decides to track down his secret. On board ship, she scorns the offers of two men: a dashing Great War hero and tycoon who wants her to be his mistress;and a mysterious British diplomat who tries to recruit her as a spy. But in a violent, dangerous Paris, as she struggles to survive by her wits and her camera, she discovers a plot so treacherous that she must do what she fears most, risking her life to awaken the world to the coming catastrophe.

Opening scene

Halfway along the third-class gangplank I glanced up and saw a photo just waiting for me. Black ropes slanting across the grey sky, white seagulls floating above the curved flanks of the SS Normandie, the world’s loveliest liner.

As a photographer seeing the world in black and white, I was always searching for the perfect image.

Quick! Camera to eye, finger on the button…but just as I clicked a man stepped into the frame. Damn, mister, you ruined my shot. Through the viewfinder I watched him looking down at me from the first-class gangplank. He was tall and broad-shouldered and his hat shadowed his face. I flushed, confused, overcome by a yearning I hadn’t felt in a long time. I looked down to advance my film with shaky hands.

Crazy. Impossible. Didn’t I have enough trouble already? Anyway, I would never meet him. Passengers of different classes were strictly forbidden to mix. He was on his way to the fabled luxuries of the upper decks, while I was consigned to the utilitarian bowels of the ship. I took a deep breath.

And when I looked up, he was gone.