THE PARIS AFFAIR

An engineer working on the Eiffel Tower draws the attention of a wealthy heir who may be more dangerous than he seems.

Fin Tighe, who has come to Paris from London to escape his cruel aristocratic father, has found some success as an engineer working with Gustave Eiffel. But he struggles to support himself and his cousin Aurélie, a ballerina he strives to protect from the lecherous men who prey on young dancers. While at one of her performances, Fin catches the eye of Gilbert Duhais, the nephew and heir of Michel de Genet, scion of a luxury department store that seeks to make inroads in the U.K. The meeting is fortuitous: Fin has been asked to drum up investments for the planned Eiffel Tower, an unpopular undertaking that has lost funding and threatens his and his employer’s financial solvency. Gilbert offers to introduce him to the wealthiest people in Parisian society but also reveals that he knows Fin’s father and was friends with Aurélie’s abusive brother. Despite his hesitancy, Fin allows Gilbert to advocate for him, and in time begins a romantic relationship that puts them both at risk. But as the two grow closer, danger mounts—one of Fin’s friends goes missing and another turns up dead. Soon Fin learns that Gilbert is more than his uncle’s accountant, and Fin must determine what the real motive is for his interest. With his convoluted backstory, Fin can be hard to empathize with. Stubborn and untrusting, he lacks any dynamism that would match Gilbert’s flair. Instead, the coupling seems random and without passion, and the mystery of why Gilbert has chosen to befriend him becomes tangled in too many potential connections between the two to make sense.

This overstuffed novel is heavy on suspicion and light on chemistry.