A young seamstress wearing a velvet mask is strangled in Paris's La Villette district, a black unicorn medallion left beside her body. Within days two wealthy, respected men are found brutally murdered.Victor Legris cannot resist this tantalizing puzzle, and soon he is embroiled in the shady dealings of a fashionable dressmaking workshop and a clandestine society of the rich and powerful. But he risks exposing secrets buried for decades, ones many people are desperate to keep hidden...



Claude Izner is the pen-name of two Parisian sisters, Liliane and Laurence Korb who were booksellers on the banks of the Seine for many years. As a writing duo, the sisters published numerous novels, including the bestselling Paris Bookshop Mysteries. The series has sold more than 800,000 copies in France and been translated into eight languages. Liliane Korb passed away in 2022.



A charming journey through the life and intellectual times of an era"



Claude Izner... brilliantly evokes 1890s Paris... in a cracking, highly satisfying yarn