Murder in Paris with Christina Koning

Submitted: 19th November 2025

Murder in Paris with Christina Koning

Christina Koning is on a mission….

Christina Koning

Location map of Murder in Paris

I’ve always loved Paris — the ‘City of Light’ as it is often called. It got its name not only for its reputation as the capital of the enlightenment but, more prosaically, because it was one of the first cities to adopt gas street lighting. Whether strolling along Haussmann’s Grands Boulevards, or wandering the steep winding streets of Montmartre, it’s hard not to be beguiled by glimpses of Parisian life. Glimpses set against an architectural backdrop so beautiful it seems like a stage set.

Haussmann’s Grands Boulevards

Location map of Murder in Paris

There is, of course a darker side to Paris. One doesn’t need to go back to the days of the French Revolution to know that terror and violence are also a part of the city’s history — not least during the years of the Occupation. It’s this dark time that forms the background of Murder in Paris. It’s the final book in my ten-book Blind Detective series.

Murder in Paris Christina Koning

Location map of Murder in Paris

My hero, Frederick Rowlands, is a veteran of the First World War who lost his sight at Ypres. He finds himself, by a twist of fate, becoming a — somewhat reluctant — detective. Over successive books he grapples with a series of baffling murder cases. Every single case is set against a specific historical period — Berlin during the rise of Hitler; Barcelona during the Spanish Civil War.

Christina Koning

Location map of Murder in Paris

Murder in Paris, set in 1945, finds Rowlands summoned to the French capital. He’s sent there by Iris Barnes, the MI6 operative with whom he has had dealings in several previous books. A young woman calling herself Clara Metzner has turned up in Fresnes prison. A place now a holding pen for returned concentration camp prisoners. Rowlands knew Clara years before in Berlin, and — notwithstanding his blindness — may be the only person who can identify her.

Street in Paris where many French fashion houses have exclusive stores:

Location map of Murder in Paris

Iris Barnes believes that Clara may have information concerning the identity of the person who betrayed the resistance network of which her friend Amélie Mendl, a young Jewish woman who worked as a seamstress for a Paris fashion house, was a member. But before Clara can reveal the truth, she is found dead, and Rowlands is caught up in a search for the traitor — and for the missing Amélie — before further deaths ensue.

Hôtel Cécil, in Rue Saint-Didier

Location map of Murder in Paris

When writing Murder in Paris, I had to envisage the place, not as it is now, but as it would have been during those troubled postwar months. In doing so, I tried to look at as many aspects of Parisian society as I could — from the salons of high society to the bohemian cafes of the Left Bank. I used a number of actual historical locations — such as the Hôtel Cécil, in Rue Saint-Didier, which was then the HQ of MI6, Coco Chanel’s salon in Rue Cambon and Picasso’s studio, in Rue Gabrielle.

Location map of Murder in Paris

Another famous Montmartre location referenced in the novel was the Moulin Rouge nightclub, but I made sure to include plenty of other Left Bank watering-holes, such as Le Select, Café de Flore, Brasserie Lipp and Les Deux Magots.

Coco Chanel’s salon in Rue Cambon

Location map of Murder in Paris

The ritzier surroundings of the wealthy art collectors and socialites which feature in the story are fictional. However, I was inspired by an apartment on the Île Saint-Louis. I found it on a Paris estate agent’s website. However, I do love exploring the quiet streets of this peaceful island in the Seine and have done on numerous occasions. The celebrated Shakespeare and Company — another favourite haunt — was the model for my Latin Quarter bookshop. I’ve never stayed at the famous Crillon hotel, but I have often admired its elegant eighteenth century façade — more like a palace than a hotel. I’ve strolled around Père Lachaise cemetery many times, checking off the names of the famous and infamous who are buried there.

Location map of Murder in Paris

But I’ve never visited the catacombs that lie beneath the city — even though they are the setting for the final scene of Murder in Paris. The thought of descending 130 steps to a subterranean graveyard built out of human bones is too much for even this seasoned traveller.