My name is Rachel Levis, and up until two years ago I would have said that every day in my life was pretty much the same. But then I solved –

We solved, you mean. We solved.

Yes, sorry, right. That’s my best friend, Magda Stevens. She and I live in Paris. We’ve been best friends for more than twenty years, which is almost exactly how long we’ve lived here, too. For most of that time our lives were just normal. I’m a poet, so my days were mostly quiet. But then, about two years ago, we solved the murder of an ex-boyfriend of mine, who also lived in Paris. Then, last summer, I found a body in the bathroom of a café, and we solved that murder, too.

They didn’t ask you to write about Crimes I Have Solved. You’re supposed to be describing your day.

I’m doing that, but it won’t make any sense without the background. Okay?

Okay. Sorry. Go on.

Thank you. Ahem. After we found out who committed the second murder, we decided to become professional private detec—

Tell about the police. It doesn’t make sense without the police.

Oh, right, right. The police also investigated both murders, but we were the ones who solved them. So we figured that since we seemed to be pretty good at investigating. . .

–better than the police.

Yes, better than the police, we should set up on our own. Levis and Stevens, Investigatrices. That’s what we’re calling ourselves.

Or Stevens and Levis.

Or Levis and Stevens. Magda is handling the digital and online aspects of the detection, while I’m covering more of the old-fashioned on-the-ground work.

She can pick a lock with a bobby pin.

Magda, they don’t want to know stuff like that.

Don’t be modest about your skills! She can. She’s done it twice now, once with an old-fashioned lock, and once with a keycard lock. She’s fantastic at it.

Okay, yes, I did do that, but at the moment a day in my life consists of background research.

By which you mean you read books about detection.

Yes, I read books about detection. But come on: consider our last two years. First we figured out that Edgar, who seemed to have drowned in a bowl of soup, was really murdered, and then we had an actual confrontation with his murderer—

–who nearly killed me—

–who nearly killed you, and we only got out of that situation by sheer good fortune. Then we tracked down a murderer who was also a book thief, but not before they destroyed valuable books and murdered a—

–What’s your point?

My point is that reading books about detection might seem tame, but it is in fact an important step in acquiring the skills of detection.

Oooh, ‘the skills of detection.’ I like that.

Thank you. So while it looks as if I’m just reading Les détectives privés pour les Nuls (that’s Private Detection for Dummies, in English), I am in fact acquiring knowledge that will prevent us from having our lives threatened by murderers in the future.

Plus you promised Alan that you’d get some kind of training before we started.

That, too. Alan is my husband, and he helped us on our first case. He worries about me. Oh, and Magda’s boyfriend Benoit, a lawyer, has also helped us in the past. And there’s this police detective, a captain named Boussicault—

But he doesn’t believe we can do it on our own.

That’s certainly true! But twice now we’ve proved him wrong. And now I’m learning all sorts of useful skills from my books, and Magda’s been learning all about hack—

Accessing information on the internet. I’m learning all about how to access information on the internet.

Right, right. So even though we’re not yet licensed private detectives, I feel like we’re ready for whatever crime Paris throws at us next. . .

The Books of the Dead is the second book in the “Death in Paris” traditional mystery series, released October 8, 2019.

Parisian summers are for strolls in the park . . . and solving a murder–or two.

When American sleuth Rachel Levis stumbles upon an employee of the French national library strangled in the bathroom of a cafe, she’s not surprised to be asked to help with the investigation by her old acquaintance Capitaine Boussicault–after all, she and her best friend Magda solved a tricky murder only eighteen months before.

But right from the start, this case proves to be très difficile. When Rachel goes undercover as a librarian to determine which of his book-loving colleagues loathed the man enough to kill him, the library is rocked by more bad news: a priceless antique book has been mutilated. And the very next day, her favorite suspect for the murder is found dead in the stacks.

Just as the case is heating up, Boussicault pulls Rachel from the investigation. Undeterred, she and Magda decide to forge ahead with their own investigation–even if it could put them at odds with the police and in serious danger. With evidence and suspects piling up, it will be up to them to find the culprit–and stop more innocent books from being harmed–before anyone else checks out for good.

Purchase Link
# # # # # # # # # # #

Meet the author
Emilia Bernhard is the author of the Death in Paris mystery series, featuring amateur detectives Rachel Levis and Magda Stevens. So far the series includes Death in Paris (2018) and The Books of the Dead (2019); the third instalment, Designs on the Dead, will be published in 2021. Emilia is American but now lives in Bristol, England, with her cats. When she’s not writing mysteries, she bakes cookies, dances ballet, and drinks tea – although not all at the same time.

To learn more about Emilia, visit her website at emiliabernhard.com. Also connect with Emilia on Facebook, or on Twitter, or on Instagram.

All comments are welcomed.