The Paris Widow – Character Interview

The Paris Widow – character interview

Kimberly Belle

A dream vacation turns deadly when secrets from the past catch up to a married couple in Paris in this new edge-of-your-seat thriller from USA Today bestselling author, Kimberly Belle.

When Stella met Adam, she thought she had finally found a nice, normal guy—a welcome change from her previous boyfriend and her precarious jetsetter lifestyle with him. But her secure world comes crashing down when Adam goes missing after an explosion in the city square. Unable to reach him, she panics.

As the French police investigate, it’s revealed that Adam was on their radar as a dealer of rare and stolen antiquities with a long roster of criminal clients. Reeling from this news, Stella is determined not to leave Paris until she has the full story. Was Adam a random victim or the target of the explosion? And why is someone following her through the streets of Paris?

Character interview

Kimberly: A dream vacation turns deadly… that must have been some vacation, huh? 

Stella: Yeah, and thanks a lot for that, by the way. You gave me three glorious weeks in some of my favorite places on the planet, then ruined it on the very last day. You sent not just our vacation but our entire lives up in smoke. Literally. 

Kimberly: Sorry, but that’s the price you pay for starring in a Kimberly Belle novel. My stories always start off with a bang. For you—well, mostly for your husband, Adam, the bang was a bomb going off in the city square. I can’t even imagine how terrifying that was. 

Stella [nodding]: I still shake when I think about it. We were on our way to the hotel to catch a cab to the airport when Adam realized he’d left his sunglasses at the café where we’d just had lunch. The cheap, ugly pair we’d bought at some corner market in Italy because he lost his other ones. I told him to forget about them, but he said they were his favorite souvenir.

Adam went back to retrieve them while I went to fetch our luggage and call the cab. I was halfway to the hotel when—boom. The ground underneath me shifted. Windows and bus stations exploded, the glass shattered, people and car alarms wailing. It was chaos, and everyone kept saying the same word—terroristes—but all I could think of was Adam. I ran in the direction of the smoke. I ran as fast as I could. 

Kimberly: And? What did you find there? 

Stella: The square where we’d just had lunch was a war zone. I’ve never seen anything like it. Fires and smoke and people lying on the ground, being dragged out of buildings. And the café was gone. A hole in the building where it used to be. I looked for Adam, but he was nowhere. I looked for him for days.

Kimberly: And then the lieutenant colonel showed up at the hotel with all those accusations. 

Stella: At first I didn’t believe him. I mean who would? Adam’s business sold decorative wall panels and antique mirrors. Cast-iron balcony railings like the ones you see in Paris. Not blood antiquities, not looted and stolen artifacts like the lieutenant colonel insisted. Of course I didn’t believe him, not until I searched through Adam’s things. I don’t want to give too much away, but let’s just say that what I found sent me on a mission for the truth. I had to know what secrets Adam had been keeping.

Kimberly: Okay, but Paris, though. She was the best possible backdrop for this story, don’t you think? I know you love that city as much as I do. 

Stella: Absolutely. I got to stroll along the banks of the Seine and stand under the Eiffel Tower when it lit up at night and gaze up at the Notre Dame even though it was buried under scaffolding. I ate crepes and galettes and drank my weight in champagne. And when you look at it like that, I guess I can see the charm of a story like ours for the reader. Get swept away to glamorous, foreign lands for a few, spine-tingling hours where the danger is fictitious and the thrills are second hand. And the best part? No passport necessary. 

BUY THE PARIS WIDOW HERE

Bio

Kimberly Belle is the USA Today and internationally bestselling author with over one million copies sold worldwide, with titles including The Paris Widow, The Marriage Lie, a Goodreads Choice Awards semifinalist for Best Mystery & Thriller, and the co-authored #1 Audible Original, Young Rich Widows. Kimberly’s novels have been optioned for film and television and selected by LibraryReads and Amazon & Apple Books Editors as Best Books of the Month, and the International Thriller Writers as nominee for best book of the year. She divides her time between Atlanta and Amsterdam. 

Keep up with Kimberly on Facebook / TikTok (KimberlyBelleBooks), Twitter / Instagram (@KimberlySBelle) or via her website at www.kimberlybellebooks.com.

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Category: Contemporary Women Writers, Interviews, On Writing