The Handbag's Tale is a highly-stylized murder mystery set in Paris, 1924. The story has a vein of dark and sardonic humour running through it. With characters as diverse as Nana the Snake Dancer, poets, painters, proprietors of bawdy houses, inept burglars, it's an unforgettable tale, a classic time and place. Portly playboy banker Emile Danton is found dead in an alley. Shot between the eyes, there is an empty woman's purse beside him and seventeen thousand francs in his pocket. In the glittering world of Paris during the roaring twenties, the bourgeois had their seamy underbelly. All is revealed to Inspector Maintenon and his trusty sidekick, the burly Sergeant Levain. Not a police procedural in any sense, my short story drops formula and substitutes art in its place. Every mind leaves its imprint upon its works, and the murder of Emile Danton is no exception. What a surprising tale an empty purse can tell. http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004OL2XJW