Reviewed by Jamie Michele for Readers' Favorite

William Ian Grubman’s Paris After the Storm is set in Paris in 1947, where Émile Rothstein serves as Director of Restorations at the Louvre as thousands of artworks stolen by the Nazis await return to their owners. When a Renoir Émile repairs disappears from the museum’s repatriation collection, his concern grows after paintings bearing Nazi markings begin appearing for sale in Paris galleries. Several are brought forward by Adèle Léon, a woman presenting documents that connect the works to Jewish collectors who died during the war. Émile’s father Mori, a respected art dealer who knew many of those collectors personally, recognizes that something is wrong. As more paintings surface, Émile begins tracing how art recovered after the occupation could be leaving the Louvre and entering the private market under apparently legitimate ownership.

William Ian Grubman’s Paris After the Storm is excellent historical fiction, with the author bringing 1947 Paris beautifully into the story. The mystery is excellent, and there's kind of an unsung hero in Jacob, Émile’s older brother, whose accounting chops push the detective work as discrepancies between inventory records and release documents start piling up. The period details are fantastic, especially in Émile’s restoration studio, where his work on the Mona Lisa recreates Leonardo da Vinci’s materials down to the lead white primer used beneath the paint. That same historical eye carries into the social world surrounding the museum, giving the city a wonderful sense of place beyond the galleries. The prose shines in making postwar Paris a character in its own right, from horse chestnut shadows across the Champs-Élysées to a Louvre Christmas soirée beneath eighteenth-century cupids and decorated trees. Intelligently written, immersive, and historically grounded, readers and art lovers who enjoy postwar historical mysteries will adore this book.