French Ghost
This novel captivated me from the start with its tight, pithy writing and breezy tone. The first scene takes place at a funeral in Paris—a famous French actor is dead, and a small crowd of dry-eyed VIPs is in attendance in the icy-cold chapel.
The main protagonist, Melody Layne, is a ghost. Or more precisely, she’s a ghost writer. And she’s furious with the actor, Charles-Henry Banville. He hired her to write his memoir, and she had disrupted her whole life to move from New York to Paris for the job. She’d been counting on his fee to rescue her shaky finances—but now he’d fallen off a barge and drowned, before she had the chance to interview him even once. How could he do this to her?
Then she gets a call from Banville’s son, Carlos. A legitimate son, one the tabloids don’t seem to know about. He wants Melody to continue researching his father’s story. And he’s quite a dish, handsome and well-educated. Melody is fascinated—and she needs the $20,000 she’ll get for the job.
It becomes apparent that Banville’s death was likely a murder, not an accident. And Carlos, his main heir, is the top suspect. Melody isn’t sure just how to navigate through events as they unfold.
This book is delightful, a fast-paced romp. The settings, in Paris and other French cities, are vividly painted. The characters are engaging and the plot moves quickly, right to the final twist at the end.
This is LaBalme’s first novel—and the good news is that it’s the first book of a series. The second, titled French Toast, is in preparation, and LaBalme already is planning the third.
Her ability to “take us there” in France is based on her real-life experience. After starting her career in the New York fashion industry, she moved to Paris where she became Fashion Editor for the English language magazine Passion. She subsequently wrote and edited the gourmet destination guide La Belle France for fifteen years, while freelancing for the New York Times travel section and other publications. The actor characters in French Ghost are loosely based on stars she interviewed in the course of her work.
She continues to love living in Paris.
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