Lost and Found in Paris: A Novel

by Lian Dolan

Overview

“Fast-paced and colorful, with hints of The Goldfinch and Malibu Rising, and more than one pitch-perfect love story—Lost and Found in Paris sparkles like the City of Light itself and will have you flipping the pages quickly as you’re drawn deeply into its mysterious world of art, intrigue, and redemption.” —Kristin Harmel, New York Times bestselling author of The Book of Lost Names 

The ultimate escapist adventure in Paris, told with wit, style, and a touch of intrigue, by the popular and dynamic author of The Sweeney Sisters.

Joan Blakely had an unconventional childhood: the daughter of a globe-trotting supermodel and a world-famous artist. Her artist father died on 9/11, and Joan—an art historian by training—has spent more than a decade maintaining his legacy. Life in the art world is beginning to wear on her—and then one fateful afternoon her husband drops a bombshell: he’s fathered twins with another woman.

Furious but secretly pleased to have a reason to blow up her life, Joan impulsively decides to get out of town, booking a last-minute trip to Paris as an art courier: the person museums hire to fly valuable works of art to potential clients, discreetly stowed in their carry-on luggage. Sipping her champagne in business-class, she chats up her seatmate, Nate, a good-looking tech nerd who invites her to dinner in Paris. He doesn’t know she’s carrying drawings worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.

But after a romantic dinner and an even more romantic night together, Joan wakes up next to her new lover to discover the drawings gone. Even more shocking is what’s been left in their place: a sketch from her father’s journals, which she thought had been lost when he died on 9/11, and a poem that reads like a treasure hunt.

With Nate as a sidekick, Joan will follow the clues all over Paris—from its grand cathedrals to the romantic bistros to the twisty side streets of Montmartre—hoping to recover the lost art, and her own sense of adventure. What she finds is even better than she’d expected.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780062909022
Publisher:	HarperCollins Publishers
Publication date:	04/05/2022
Pages:	320
Sales rank:	146,078
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Lian Dolan is a writer and broadcaster, whose name is pronounced like “Liam” but with an “n.”  She is the creator and host of “Satellite Sisters”, the award-winning and top-rated radio talk show she produces with her four real sisters: Julie, Liz, Sheila, and Monica. She also created the popular podcast about modern motherhood, “The Chaos Chronicles”, developed by Nick at Nite for TV. Lian is the author of two Los Angeles Times best-selling novels, Helen of Pasadena and Elizabeth the First Wife, and a regular columnist for Pasadena Magazine. A graduate of Pomona College in Claremont, she now lives in Pasadena, California with her husband and two sons

Editorial Reviews

02/28/2022

Dolan’s clever latest (after The Sweeney Sisters) follows a newly single art courier as she ends up on a scavenger hunt after losing the work in her care. After Joan Blakely’s social-climbing husband, Casey, reveals he’s fathered twins with his former assistant, Joan accepts an assignment to deliver a series of sketches by a 19th-century French painter depicting Joan of Arc from a Pasadena, Calif., museum to a collector in Paris. The obscure works are meaningful to Joan, whose namesake was revered and often referenced by her late father, Henry, a famous artist who died in the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Joan meets smart, thoughtful Nate on the flight to Paris, and later, in an attempt to forget about Casey, she hooks up with him. The morning after, she discovers the sketches are missing from her hotel room safe. Joan grills Nate about the theft and determines he wasn’t the culprit. Then, envelopes appear that contain elaborate clues along with a page from Henry’s priceless notebooks, long thought to be lost in the plane that crashed into the North Tower. Dolan successfully sells most, but not all, of the far-fetched reasons for the mystery of the envelopes, and does a fantastic job depicting Joan’s love for her father and heartache over his death. This has a bit more substance than the standard Parisian romp. (Apr.)

Publishers Weekly

"Fast-paced and colorful, with hints of The Goldfinch and Malibu Rising, and more than one pitch-perfect love story—Lost And Found In Paris sparkles like the City of Light itself and will have you flipping the pages quickly as you're drawn deeply into its mysterious world of art, intrigue, and redemption."

Kristin Harmel

Reading Lian Dolan is like sitting next to a delightful and hilarious friend with a fine glass of champagne as she regales you with her enthralling adventures. Witty and ravishing, with an intriguing mystery, a grand love story and a quick-witted heroine, Lost and Found in Paris is magnificent.

Patti Callahan

"Dolan spins a story that is both heavy and light, spanning continents and exploring relationships. With a hint of Dan Brown and a splash of Jamie Brenner, this book will appeal to a variety of readers, especially those who enjoy character-driven fiction."

Booklist

11/01/2021

Daughter of a prominent artist whose legacy she has tended since his death on 9/11, art historian Joan Blakely is so enraged when she learns of her husband's infidelity that she decides to get out of town, accepting a job as art courier and carrying valuable drawings to Paris in her overnight bag. After hooking up with handsome techie Nate, whom she met in business class, she awakens to find the drawings gone and a long-lost work by her father in their place. Now she's got mysteries to solve, with Nate's help. Billed as a "thinking woman's ultimate escapist adventure in Paris"; with a 50,000-copy first printing.

Library Journal

2022-01-12
A 31-year-old Los Angeles–area woman finds herself caught up in intrigue when the artworks she’s delivering to Paris are stolen.

Joan Blakely might be the daughter of an internationally famous artist tragically killed on 9/11 and a supermodel, but she's nothing like either of her parents, while being exactly like both. Hardworking, focused, beautiful, working at an art museum, and almost 10 years into what she thought was a happy marriage to a photographer, Joan is pretty OK with how her life has turned out. But then her husband drops a bombshell as he’s heading out of town: Not only did he have an affair, he has 5-year-old twin sons who are starting kindergarten and live not five miles away. Joan can either join the big blended family he envisions with his former assistant–cum–baby mama, children, and her, or the marriage is over. Joan doesn’t have to think twice, and the locks to their—really her and her mother’s—house are changed and divorce proceedings started while he’s out of town. The story follows Joan’s efforts to reclaim her life, trying to rediscover the self she lost 10 years previously when her father was killed aboard American Airlines Flight 11 when it hit the North Tower of the World Trade Center. She agrees to personally courier a set of Joan of Arc–related sketches from the museum where she works to Paris so that an interested buyer can take a look at them. One thing leads to another, and the sketches are stolen. An inexplicably lighthearted lark of a treasure hunt develops as Joan follows clues that lead her to various locations of personal importance to her, her father, and her mother as she tries to find the sketches.

A quirky novel that deals with weighty topics and emotions without taking itself too seriously.

Kirkus Reviews

This is a big-hearted belly-laugh of a book, told with wit and poignancy. Family secrets, laughter and tears, shocking reveals, and an uplifting ending make this a story to savor—and share.” 

Susan Wiggs

"Dolan spins a story that is both heavy and light, spanning continents and exploring relationships. With a hint of Dan Brown and a splash of Jamie Brenner, this book will appeal to a variety of readers, especially those who enjoy character-driven fiction."

Booklist