|
Loading... The Black Towerby Louis Bayard
LibraryThing recommendationsMember recommendations
Loading...
won't like
will probably not like
will probably like
will like
will love Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. Wonderful historical mystery. ( )In this new novel by Louis Bayard, carefully drawn French sleuth Vidocq searchers for the Dauphin, the lost son of Louis-Charles, Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette's. At first this book appears to be a mystery novel, and during some of the initial chapters this created some confusion since it becomes clear later that this amazing book is instead a careful character study. When seen from this perspective The Black Tower provides a glimpse into what must have been a remarkable part of European history. Thoroughly enjoyable, well researched and carefully crafted, this book is an amazing study of how strong, extraordinary and common people deal with events thrown on them they could never imagine themselves becoming involved in. Solid writing, great entertainment. I liked this book and it was very consistent with Bayard's other work I read, "The Pale Blue Eye". A fun read. Dois personagens reais dão vida a este romance histórico com sabor de thriller e genial arquitetura literária. O primeiro é Louis-Charles, o filho de Maria Antonieta e do rei Luis XVI, que por quase 3 anos ficou preso na temida Torre do Templo, vivendo em condições desumanas, onde teria morrido com 10 anos de idade. Rumores de que teria escapado imediatamente circularam na França. É esta possibilidade que será investigada por outro personagem real que parece saído das páginas da ficção: monsieur Vidocq, um ladrão que abandonou a vida de crimes para abrir a primeira agência de detetives do mundo. http://www.omisteriodatorrenegra.com.... Bayard's great skill is his ability to evoke historical periods implicitly. In this case, the culture post-revolutionary France is captured by adopting the attitudes and values of its people. The tale has several protagonists: the failed medic narrator, the first police detective, and the man who might be the usurped king of France. Each lends his own dimension to the picture of early nineteenth century Paris. no reviews | add a review
References to this work on external resources.
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Book description |
|
Vidocq. The name strikes terror in the Parisian underworld of 1818. As founder and chief of a newly created plainclothes police force, Vidocq has used his mastery of disguise and surveillance to capture some of Frances most notorious and elusive criminals. Now he is hot on the trail of a tantalizing mystery—the fate of the young dauphin Louis-Charles, son of Marie-Antoinette and King Louis XVI.
Hector Carpentier, a medical student, lives with his widowed mother in her once-genteel home, now a boardinghouse, in Pariss Latin Quarter, helping the family make ends meet in the politically perilous days of the restoration. Three blocks away, a man has been murdered, and Hectors name has been found on a scrap of paper in the dead mans pocket: a case for the unparalleled deductive skills of Eugène François Vidocq, the most feared man in the Paris police. At first suspicious of Hectors role in the murder, Vidocq gradually draws him into an exhilarating—and dangerous—search that leads them to the true story of what happened to the son of the murdered royal family.
Officially, the Dauphin died a brutal death in Pariss dreaded Temple—a menacing black tower from which there could have been no escape—but speculation has long persisted that the ten-year-old heir may have been smuggled out of his prison cell. When Hector and Vidocq stumble across a man with no memory of who he is, they begin to wonder if he is the Dauphin himself, come back from the dead. Their suspicions deepen with the discovery of a diary that reveals Hectors own shocking link to the boy in the tower—and leaves him bound and determined to see justice done, no matter the cost.
In The Black Tower, Bayard deftly interweaves political intrigue, epic treachery, cover-ups, and conspiracies into a gripping portrait of family redemption—and brings to life an indelible portrait of the mighty and profane Eugène François Vidocq, historys first great detective.
(retrieved from Amazon Tue, 05 Jan 2010 23:52:54 -0500)
The first test round has been closed. Visit the Open Shelves Classification group for details.
Quick Links |

The Black Tower by Louis Bayard was made available through LibraryThing Early Reviewers. Sign up to possibly get pre-publication copies of books.