Category Archives: Reviews

Pope explores Belle Epoque Paris in an elegant murder mystery. The Missing Italian Girl plays out like a scene from a Merchant Ivory film; the year is 1897, the city is Paris and three shrouded figures dodge the ghoulish cast of gas lamps near the Gare de l’Est as they bring a special (and posthumous) delivery to one of the city’s dumping waters, the Basin de La Villette. In the city of lights, on a warm summer night at the turn of the century, the trio is taking a great risk. Guided by the young and confident Russian revolutionary Pyotr Ivanovich, two Italian teenage sisters — Angela and Maura Laurenzano — find themselves swept up in a world of anarchy and murder by the basin that night, as the plot is elegantly set in motion. Continue reading →