“Autumn Leaves, 1922 is a sumptuous spy romp with an irresistible heroine… Swoon through Autumn Leaves, 1922, whose mysteries are enriched with toothsome details of a bygone Paris in the glittering years before Hitler came to power.”
Whether you’re having summer in the northern hemisphere or winter in the southern hemisphere, whether you’re in lockdown or battling fires or finally on holiday, if you’re keen for your next dose of 1920s Paris, you pre-order the next Kiki Button mystery at the following places. Due out on August 3rd.
After a year away from Paris, Kiki Button is delighted to be back in City of Lights. But danger threatens her return as she is pulled into another spy mission—one that brings her ever closer to the rising fascist threat in Europe.
October 1922. Kiki Button has had a rough year at home in Australia after her mother’s sudden death. As the leaves turn gold on the Parisian boulevards, Kiki returns to Europe, more desperately in need of Paris and all its liveliness than ever. As soon as she arrives back in Montparnasse, Kiki takes up her life again, drinking with artists at the Café Rotonde, gossiping with her friends, and finding lovers among the enormous expatriate community. Even her summertime lover from the year before, handsome Russian exile Prince Theo Romanov, is waiting for her.
But it’s not all champagne and moonlit trysts. Theo is worried that his brother-in-law is being led astray by political fanatics. Kiki’s boy from home, Tom, is still hiding under a false name. Her friends are in trouble—Maisie has been blackmailed and looks for revenge, Bertie is still lovesick and lonely, and Harry has important information about her mother. And to top it off, she is found by Dr. Fox, her former spymaster, who insists that she work for him once more.
Amidst the gaiety of 1920s Paris, Kiki stalks the haunted, the hunted, and people still heartsore from the war. She parties with princes and Communist comrades, she wears ballgowns with Chanel and the Marchesa Casati, she talks politics with Hemingway and poetry with Sylvia Beach, and sips tea with Gertrude Stein. She confronts the men who would bring Europe into another war. And as she uses her gossip columnist connections for her mission, she also meets people who knew her mother, and can help to answer her burning question: why did her mother leave England all those years ago?
If you missed out on my talk at Sutherland Library in November 2018, you have a chance to revisit it this year. Through February to May, I will be giving versions of that talk at places (mostly libraries) in and around Sydney. Some details of these are below.
I’m giving a talk at the Sutherland Library, Sydney NSW, about Paris and 1920s bohemia, about detective fiction and writing, about my heroine Kiki Button and all her antics. Come and join me! The details are below:
Kiki Button is in the world! April in Paris, 1921has now been released by Harper Collins throughout Australia. You can get it at Booktopia, on your reading device, or in your local bookshop. To celebrate, here’s a picture of me, dressed up as Kiki, sitting in the terrasse area of Le Dome Cafe in Montparnasse, Paris in April.
I am also delighted to announce that my novel April in Paris, 1921: a Kiki Button mystery has been acquired by Pegasus Books in the US. This US edition is due for release on July 3rd, 2018 but is available for pre-order through the Pegasus site, Amazon, Book Depository and Booktopia. I’d like to thank Katie McGuire, Claiborne Hancock, my editor at Pegasus for all their hard work, and again, my agent Sarah McKenzie. And the cover designer too: the cover is magnificent.
I am delighted to announce that my novel April in Paris, 1921: a Kiki Button mystery has been acquired by Harper Collins Australia. It is due for release on May 21st, 2018 with pre-orders available now through Harper Collins and Booktopia. I’d like to thank my agent Sarah McKenzie, my publisher Catherine Milne, my editor Julia Stiles, as well as Belinda Yuille, Alice Wood and the cover designer. Isn’t it great?
Expect much much more about Kiki Button in the future.
I am pleased to say that I have been awarded first place in the Josephine Ulrick Prize for Literature. This annual prize is run by Griffith University and is one of the most prestigious prizes in Australia. It includes both a poetry and a fiction section, with two first place and two runners-up. I am grateful and proud at having come first place and wish to congratulate the other winners – Melissa Goode, Sarah Holland-Batt, and Chloe Wilson – on their excellent work. I would also like to thank judges Matthew Lamb and Terri-Ann White, Judith Beveridge and Anthony Lawrence, as well as Nigel Krauth and Griffith University.
You can read my story here.
You can read Melissa Goode’s story here, Sarah Holland-Batt’s poem here, and Chloe Wilson’s poem here.
Scene of destruction in a Berlin street just off the Unter den Linden. No 5 Army Film & Photographic Unit, Wilkes A (Sergeant) – This is photograph BU 8604 from the collections of the Imperial War Museums (collection no. 4700-30)
I am very pleased to say that, for its latest issue War & Peace, Southerly published my short fiction piece, V. You can read it here.
Tessa Lunney 