Alice B. Toklas is Missing

by Robert Archambeau Narrated by Allyson Voller

Overview

Jazz-age Paris was the center of the artistic and literary world, and the center of the center was Gertrude Stein's salon, where the famous and aspiring creative talents gathered to gawk at Stein's Picassos and vie for status. Young Midwesterner Ida Caine arrives in Paris with her husband Teddy, a would-be Hemingway who thinks he can adventure first and write later. When Teddy falls in with the Stein set, he brings Ida to the salon, where she is shunted into a corner with the wives of famous men. She burns with resentment and wonders if she can ever develop into a real artist herself. A few days later, Gertrude Stein's partner Alice B. Toklas vanishes. Stein calls upon Teddy to investigate. Soon after, he vanishes. Forced to seek out her missing husband, Ida follows his trail through a milieu including strange Surrealist rituals, Tarot card readings, and the catacombs beneath the city. She falls in with a young American poet, T. S. Eliot. An unlikely passion grows while they seek answers to the shocking disappearances.

Editorial Reviews

Library Journal

11/01/2023

DEBUT Poet Archambeau's first novel is set in post-World War I Paris. Chicago artist Ida Caine travels with her new husband, Teddy, to the City of Light. She wants to paint, and he wants to write. They soon find their way to the salon of Gertrude Stein and Alice Toklas, where Teddy is accepted readily, Ida is invited to the wives' group, and they encounter a variety of painters, poets, and writers. One day, Alice disappears, and Gertrude asks Teddy to find her. Then Teddy vanishes as well, and Ida takes up the search, enlisting her new friends. They are quickly drawn into a web of lies and danger, including a terrorist plan to destroy key buildings. VERDICT With a multilayered plot, real figures from Jazz Age Paris, and puzzles for Ida and her friends to figure out, this novel will appeal to fans of Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code or Sulari Gentill's A Few Right Thinking Men.—Victoria Kollar

JANUARY 2024 - AudioFile

Allyson Voller introduces listeners to Robert Archambeau's colorful portrait of Jazz Age Paris, including Gertrude Stein's famous salons. When Ida Caine, an American would-be artist, meets Stein and her partner, Alice, and many other period luminaries, including T.S. Eliot, André Breton, and Ernest Hemingway, she is awestruck. But when her husband disappears and Alice goes missing, Ida finds herself tangled up in a conflict between the Modernists and the Futurists. It seems the enemies of art have hatched a diabolical plot to destroy all the museums, concert halls, and galleries of Paris. Voller gives a serviceable narration; however, her anglicized French pronunciations and mispronunciations are off-putting and slow this mystery down. Voller's unimpressive characterizations distract from what could have been a thrilling historical adventure. S.J.H. © AudioFile 2024, Portland, Maine

Product Details

BN ID:	2940159632982
Publisher:	Tantor Audio
Publication date:	11/28/2023
Edition description:	Unabridged

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