The Paris Maid

Paris, 1944. “Traitor!” yells the crowd as they push me down onto a stool. “Nazi collaborator.” Tears blur my vision as the razor grazes my scalp, waves of blonde hair falling to the ground. As men paint a swastika across my face, I hold onto one small glimmer of hope. They have no idea who I am.

 Louise Basset works as a housemaid at The Ritz Hotel, home to the most powerful Nazis in France. As she changes silk sheets and scrubs sumptuous marble bathtubs, she listens and watches, reporting all she can to the Resistance. The only secret she never tells is her own.

 Everything changes for Louise when a young Allied pilot, hunted by the Nazis, is smuggled into the hotel. As he and Louise share a small carafe of red wine hidden amongst her cleaning bottles, she feels her heart begin to open. But what might happen if Louise finally confides in someone?

 Years later, her granddaughter Nicole looks up at the ornate façade of the infamous Paris hotel. She is reeling from her recent discovery: a black and white photograph of her grandmother as a young woman, head shaved, branded a traitor. Devastated by her new legacy just as she's about to start a family of her own, Nicole begins to search for answers.

 When a French historian reveals that Louise once went by a different name, Nicole realizes there is more to her grandmother's story. Was the woman who taught Nicole so much about family and loyalty a resistance fighter, or will her granddaughter have to live with the knowledge that she is descended from a traitor? And will Nicole be able to finally move forward with her life if she can uncover the truth?

Ella Carey is a writer and Francophile who claims Paris as her second home. Her previous books are Paris Time Capsule and The House by the Lake, and her work has been published in the Review of Australian Fiction. She lives in Australia with her two children and two Italian greyhounds.