‘The Purple Shadow’ by Christopher Bowden is a wonderfully captivating story. It begins as a leisurely stroll around Paris but becomes a very atmospheric mystery that needs to be solved.
Colin Mallory is an out of work actor and a chance meeting in an art gallery leads to a dinner invitation, which he accepts. While attending the dinner he sees a portrait of a woman, he asks who the woman is and is told there is little known of the origins of the painting. All they know is the woman is called Sylvie Charlot, a fashionista of the pre-war years.
Colin is almost compelled to discover every detail about this painting. Who was the artist, who was Sylvie Charlot, and why does he see a mysterious shadow of something on the outside of the painting? He decides to research and it takes him to galleries, theatre archives and museums both in Paris and London.
His research begins to reveal a love affair between a married man and Sylvie in the 1930s. He also finds out someone else has been inquiring with similar questions. Colin is now at the point of no return, he needs to dig further into this mystery. He returns to the house that has the portrait and asks the members of staff if any of them knew her. Their answers begin to create a bigger mystery than he started with. The more he learns the more he becomes obsessed with finding the answers. Knowing someone else is doing the same as him, fuels his curiosity. He thinks there must be more to this mystery and it must be important. This didn’t just make Colin curious, needless to say, I was being given information as Colin was and it kept me turning the pages. As you can imagine it didn’t take me long to finish the book!
The author has recreated Paris during the 1930s exquisitely and I could almost have been hand in hand with Colin on our journey to unravel the mystery. Colin’s curiosity was catching as well, I was carried along with him, just wanting to find out more until we found out the answers.
The shadow in the picture gave the story a bit of a supernatural feel, which, for me enhanced the mystery and intrigue that little bit more also.
This is the first time I have read anything by this author but now, I shall be on the lookout for more of his work.
Thanks to Rachel’s Random Resources and the author for the copy of the book for my review today.
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