A thrilling tale of courage and secrets set in postwar London and Paris, in which a search for a missing husband puts investigator and former war reporter Billie Walker on a collision course with an underground network of Nazi criminals

It’s 1947. The world continues to grapple with the fallout of the Second World War, and former war reporter Billie Walker is finding her feet as an investigator. When a wealthy client hires Billie and her assistant, Sam, to track down her missing husband, the trail leads back to London and Paris, where Billie’s own painful memories also lurk. Jack Rake, Billie’s wartime lover and, briefly, husband, is just one of the millions of people who went missing in Europe during the war. What was his fate after they left Paris together?

As Billie’s search for her client’s husband takes her to the swanky bars of Paris’s Ritz hotel and the dank basements of the infamous morgue, she’ll need to keep her gun at the ready. Something even more terrible than a few painful memories might be following her around the City of Light . . .

Tara Moss is a Canadian born bestselling author, and award-winning human rights and disability advocate. She has written 14 books of fiction and non-fiction published in 19 countries in over a dozen languages, including her #1 international bestselling memoir The Fictional Woman. Her latest book is the historical crime thriller The Ghosts of Paris, following on from the international bestseller, The War Widow, both featuring 1940s ‘staunchly feminist, champagne-swilling, fast-driving Nazi hunter’ investigator Billie Walker.

Moss is a long-standing UNICEF ambassador. In 2021 she was chosen as a Global Change Maker by Conscious Being magazine for her disability and chronic pain activism and was a recipient of the Honorary Citizen Award for the City of Victoria for her work on accessibility rights. In 2015 she received an Edna Ryan Award for her significant contribution to feminist debate, speaking out for women and children and inspiring others to challenge the status quo, and in 2017 she was recognised as one of the Global Top 50 Diversity Figures in Public Life, for using her position in public life to make a positive impact in diversity, alongside Malala Yousufzai, Angelina Jolie and more.

Her in-depth book research has seen her earn her private investigator credentials, tour the FBI Academy at Quantico, spend time in morgues and criminology conferences, take polygraph tests, shoot weapons, conduct surveillance, pass the Firearms Training Simulator (FATSII) with the LAPD, and acquire her CAMS race driver licence. She has hosted many documentaries, including Tough Nuts – Australia’s Hardest Criminals on CI and Amazon Prime, Tara Moss Investigates on Nat Geo, author interview show Tara in Conversation, and Cyberhate with Tara Moss. She has spoken at hundreds of schools and festivals, interviewed Gloria Steinem, Naomi Klein, Alison Bechdel and more.

She lives with her family in BC. Visit her at taramoss.com 

Tara Moss' profile page

"A smart, sassy and subversive protagonist combined with secrets kept and secrets revealed to propel the plot will have you flipping pages through to the satisfying end." — Toronto Star

"A brilliant writer." — Lynda La Plante

“Ingenious, spirited, feminist. . . . Billie Walker is the most enjoyable heroine I've come across in a long time." — Cecilia Ekbäck, award-winning author of The Historians

“Billie Walker—a feisty and flamboyant combination of Martha Gellhorn and Sherlock Holmes in 'Fighting Red' lipstick—and her adventures continue, leading her back to London and Paris in this crackling postwar noir adventure, where ghosts from Billie's past are as vivid as the bad guys she's chasing." — Susan Elia MacNeal, New York Times bestselling author of the Maggie Hope series

“Just what I needed today—a blast of the escapist past.” — Ian Rankin, on The War Widow

“A first-rate noir detective mystery.” — The Christian Science Monitor, on The War Widow

“A cracking thriller, with a marvellous, strong, flamboyant heroine. Loved it.” — Joanne Harris, award-winning author of Chocolat, on The War Widow

“Retro noir with a gutsy heroine and atmospheric setting. . . . Vivid, page-turning historical crime.” — The Sydney Morning Herald, on The War Widow