Paris Match
By Christopher Bollen
Hogarth, April 6, 2026
A twisty, binge-y novel of art, sex, fashion, and murder, a delicious game of cat and mouse across the arrondissements of Paris, where every form of beauty is for sale
Nothing is more interesting than a person with something to hide.
“Thrilling, deliciously sordid, full of beauty and heartbreak. A deeply propulsive novel about desperation and innocence lost, it is also a remarkably tender love story. Ravishing in every way, Paris Match is Bollen’s best book yet.”
—Katie Kitamura, author of Audition and Intimacies
“In Paris Match, Bollen brilliantly considers murder as one of the fine arts. What an engrossing, utterly pleasurable, and morally complex novel this is. A beautiful nightmare from which I did not want to wake up.”
—Hernan Diaz, author of Ply and Trust
“A delight for its wry observation, its witty asides, its knowing descriptions of being a gay American in Paris. But it is also a finely-tuned murder mystery. We know from the opening sentence who did it: the tension and excitement come in what happens next.”
—Colm Tóibín, author of The Magician and Brooklyn
Fin Vollmer didn’t do it.
Fin is a twenty-three-year-old American in Paris whose luck is running out. He’s been living off his wits and beauty, but his visa has expired and he can’t go home to Ohio, where haunting memories await. He’s turned to casual sex work to survive, but when Fin discovers a client murdered in his palatial apartment on Île Saint-Louis, Fin knows what’s coming for him and he runs.
Jamie Hayes did.
An ex-model turned personal assistant at the sharp end of middle age, Jamie is in over his head and desperately trying to arrange an exit strategy from his many mistakes. After committing a violent murder, he now must stop the only witness from uncovering the truth.
Thus begins a game of cat and mouse across the neighborhoods of Paris and every social stratum, from the lavishly appointed apartments overlooking the Seine and the elite auction houses selling France’s artistic heritage to the squalid saunas of the Boulevard de Sébastopol and the vast overnight flower market that supplies the city’s lobbies and tables with glorious, perishable beauty.
At once a deliciously propulsive work of suspense and a transportive journey to the most beautiful city in the world, Paris Match is the most ambitious novel yet from an author the Los Angeles Times calls “a thriller master.”
Selected Praise
“Paris Match is Christopher Bollen’s best book yet—thrilling, deliciously sordid, full of beauty and heartbreak. A deeply propulsive novel about desperation and innocence lost, it is also a remarkably tender love story… Ravishing in every way.”
—Katie Kitamura, author of Audition and Intimacies
“Paris Match is a delight for its wry observation, its witty asides, its knowing descriptions of being a gay American in Paris. But it is also a finely tuned murder mystery. We know from the opening sentence who did it; the tension and excitement come in what happens next.” —Colm Tóibín, author of The Magician and Brooklyn
“In Paris Match, Christopher Bollen brilliantly considers murder as one of the fine arts. What an engrossing, utterly pleasurable, and morally complex novel this is—a beautiful nightmare from which I did not want to wake up.”
—Hernan Diaz, author of Ply and Trust
“With its intricate plot and style, Paris Match is a wily, energetic Parisian-American gay adventure. Read this book!” —Gus Van Sant
About the Author
Phillip B. Williams is from Chicago, Illinois, and is the author of two collections of poetry: Thief in the Interior, which was the winner of the Kate Tufts Discovery Award and a Lambda Literary Award, and Mutiny, which was a finalist for the PEN/Voelcker Award for Poetry Collection and the winner of a 2022 American Book Award. Williams is also the recipient of a Whiting Award and fellowships from the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University and the National Endowment for the Arts. He currently teaches in the MFA in creative writing program at New York University.
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