ARRIVALS

Art provides the perfect background for fictional narrative — a literal canvas that sparks the imagination. Call this fan fiction for the art brigade.

The Paris Secret, Karen Swan

Flora Sykes, a young fine-art agent, discovers a treasure trove of art in a Paris apartment that has been locked since 1943. The apartment, owned by the powerful Vermeil family, also contains plenty of clues that give the talented young Brit sufficient leads to uncover the secrets of this room.

This is the prolific British writer’s 10th novel: a winning blend of romance and mystery. The Blue Bath, Mary WatersSayer

Twenty years ago in Paris, Kat Lind, then an American student, had an intense love affair with a young British artist named Daniel Blake. Today, Kat is a mother and wife, establishing herself in London while her husband is in Hong Kong on business. When she hears that Daniel is in London and about to launch his first one-man show, curiosity and memory compel her to attend. What she finds astounds her.

Girl in the Afternoon, Serena Burdick

It is 1874, and Aimée Savaray, the daughter of a bourgeois Paris family, has just had her art shown at the Salon de Paris. Now that she has established herself, she decides it is time to find her adopted brother, Henri, a young artist who disappeared from the Savaray household the day after Aimée revealed her love for him. Why Henri left is the secret at the heart of this accomplished debut historical novel.

The Imperial Wife, Irina Reyn

Moscowborn Irina Reyn has steeped herself in Russian art and history, which makes reading her work a treat. Her new book unfolds in alternating chapters, one narrated by Tanya Kagan, a Russian-art expert at a New York auction house; the other, beginning in 1744, narrated by “Sophie Fredericka Augusta, “who went on to become Catherine the Great. A cunning tale of ambition and art.

The House of Dreams, Kate Lord Brown

The American journalist Varian Fry is remembered for helping anti-Nazi and Jewish intellectuals and artists escape France during the Second World War through his American Relief Center, outside Marseilles at the Villa Air-Bel. Kate Lord Brown uses this reallife figure and locale to devise an intriguing story to bridge past (1940) and present (2000).