The Coral Thief

Daniel Connor, an Englishman studying medicine in Edinburgh, is travelling to Paris to take up a position with the renowned naturalist Georges Cuvier at the Jardin des Plantes. On the mail coach to Paris a mysterious beautiful woman sits next to him and through her talk of natural history she introduces him to a new way of seeing the world. When Daniel wakes up, she is gone, and with her his bag of precious specimens and letters of introduction. When he reports the theft he learns that she is a notorious thief called Lucienne Bernard and the chief of police, Jagot, enlists Daniel to act as his eyes and ears in case she reappears. When she finally does, Daniel is drawn into a dangerous game of cat and mouse ...

The subject matter at the show more heart of the book is intriguing to say the least, and reading the book proved both thought-provoking and stimulating; however, the execution leaves more to be desired as there are several aspects that are less than convincing (the love affair and the jewel theft, for example). Despite the beautiful and almost lyrical prose in places, there's no getting away from the fact that Daniel is a weak character, letting himself be manipulated by others, especially Lucienne, and the plot plods along for the majority of the novel, only to pick up pace right at the end. Early nineteenth-century Paris is painted in a palette of colours and the book is rich in atmosphere, evoking a city picking itself up after the terrors of the Revolution, with painful memories lingering just under the surface of everyday life, the scars barely healed. Apart from the prose I mostly enjoyed the debates, usually initiated and led by Lucienne, about the impending revolution in scientific thought, foreshadowed here by Lamarck's theory of transformism (also known as transmutation) and continued almost half a century later by Charles Darwin.

Accompanying the narrative centred on Daniel is an account of Napoleon's journey to St Helena after the defeat at Waterloo, throwing up some interesting aspects about the man, not the emperor, general and statesman. show less

The year is 1815. Young Englishman Daniel Connor has recently graduated from medical school in Edinburgh and is on his way to a coveted research position in the Jardin des Plantes in post-Napoleonic Paris. After falling asleep on the coach beside a lovely woman and her daughter, however, Daniel wakes to discover that she has taken not only his letter of introduction to famous French naturalist Georges Cuvier, but also a rare and valuable specimen of coral he was supposed to gift to Cuvier. Without those items, Daniel finds himself at a loss, unable to join Cuvier’s research team, but unwilling to admit defeat and return home to Edinburgh. He approaches the police with his story, only to discover that his mysterious woman is Lucienne show more Bernard, a notorious thief who has been pursued by Henri Jagot, the chief of the Parisian police force. Jagot (modeled on real-life thief-turned-detective Francois-Eugene Vidocq) tries to enlist Daniel to entrap and capture Lucienne, but when Lucienne makes contact with Daniel again, the young man finds himself smitten by the intelligent and lovely woman and unwilling to help the ruthless Jagot. Seduced by Lucienne in both mind and body, Daniel finds himself drawn into the philosopher-thief’s scheme to steal a famous diamond and escape Jagot’s clutches once and for all.

Rich with historical detail, vividly contrasting religion, spirituality, art, and the emerging sciences, The Coral Thief is a delight. show less

It is rare these days for a work of fiction to merit my highest praise. This one held my interest, and the author did not think she was writing War and Peace. In fact, it could have been a bit longer, but that wasn't required. She told the story through the first person narration of a young scientist arriving in Paris in the early nineteenth century, simultaneous with Napoleon being transported to St. Helena. She brings the period to life well, and her characters are dynamic and charismatic. When the young scientist has the precious coral and documents stolen as he is on his way to meet Cuvier for a chance to work in the amazing Natural History museum, he finds himself suddenly with one foot in the scientific establishment and one foot show more in the underbelly of Paris. Mix in a dose of Lamarck and Cuvier disagreeing about the fixity of species, and you have the ingredients for a compelling novel. This is it. show less

The Coral Thief is a (very) smart historical thriller set in post-revolutionary Paris. To call the book a thriller is a small stretch, although there are heroes, villains, and a final confrontation between the two. The real pillars that support the book, however, are the rich history of a tumultuous post-Napoleon Paris, the emerging science of evolution, and the battle waged by the established scientific community against it.

The main character is Daniel Connor, a naive but well educated student coming from a provincial English home to the bright lights of Paris to study under the respected, if not respectful, Georges Cuvier. On his journey, his letters of introduction, along with several precious gifts (one of which is the Coral of the show more title) are stolen by a mysterious and alluring woman. Without his entrance into Paris's academic world, Connor, befriended by an established but somewhat rogue surgeon by the name of Fin, tastes a life of food, wine, and women he has never experienced.

He eventually finds the thief, one Lucienne Bernard, whose plan seemed obvious from the start: to distract Connor long enough that he may open his mind beyond the narrow established science community. The two start an affair, but there are complications. Bernard is pursued for sins of her past by a nefarious ex-thief-cum-inspector named Jagot. Bernard also has a young precocious daughter attending a school in Paris. Daniel straddles two worlds as he works with Cuvier while learning much more from Bernard and her rebellious underworld acquaintances. As Jagot draws the net more tightly, time will run out for this delicate balance.

This book will be very entertaining if you like some history and philosophy tossed in with your adventure. It moves well, and paints a wonderful picture of Paris during this time. If you like your thrillers with gadgets and plans a la Mission Impossible, you won't find that here. You will find a solid page turner, and you'll feel like you traveled back in time in the process. Stott's writing style moves quickly while still painting a rich portrait of the time and place. I will certainly read her again. show less

This book takes us to post-revolutionary Paris of 1815. It’s also post-Napoleonic as the emperor is on his way to the island of St. Helena as an exile. Daniel Connor is just beginning his journey as a medical student from Edinburgh. He enters Paris with a quite unfortunate story to tell. His naiveté cost him dearly as he got robbed by a mysterious woman. But instead of money, she stole the corals, letters of introduction and a manuscript of his mentor’s. All of these items were supposed to be delivered safely to the famous Dr. Cuvier. But now that they’re gone, Daniel’s career is in jeopardy and his despair makes him think of turning back in shame to Edinburgh. But Paris enchants Daniel with its free thought. And the thief show more comes back into his life to show Daniel that nothing is black and white in life and in science. She is indeed a philosopher and a scientist herself but became a coral thief for a deeper purpose than just stealing for profit.

Stott’s first book, Ghostwalk, was a huge disappointment to me, so I honestly didn’t expect much from The Coral Thief either. But I must say, I was pleasantly surprised. Granted, it still is not a novel that will appeal to everyone. There is a lot of unnecessary passages to seem to have no purpose and stall the plot a bit but overall, the writing is quite good and I really liked Lucienne, the coral thief. There was just something about her, maybe her spirit, her courage or just her personality, that really appealed to me and I think held the whole story together. And one more important thing is that Ms Stott really transported me to 1815 Paris. I felt I walked among the young and restless minds who questioned everything (including the revolution and how far it went and how many lives it cost) and wanted to know more and learn more. show less

If you like your summer reading laced with intrigue and a bit of intellectual history, this book should definitely be on your list. The characters, particularly Lucienne Bernard (the "coral thief" of the title), are engaging and appealing and the plot generally satisfying, though it does shift rather abruptly in tone from a suspenseful denouement to a somewhat disappointing epilogue at the very end of the book. Stott brilliantly conveys the heady atmosphere of scientific discovery and political reform in post-Napoleonic Paris and its life-changing effect on the narrator, a young Scottish medical student through whose adventures the reader becomes acquainted with some of the great minds of the age, both philosophical (the professors show more researching the marvels of the natural world at the academically renowned Jardin des Plantes ) and criminal (the head of the Surete, laboring over his own taxonomy of thieves, from among whose ranks he himself has only recently been recruited). As she did in her earlier book Ghostwalk (set in Isaac Newton's Cambridge), Stott successfully blends fact and fiction to bring to life a significant moment in the evolution of human thought and to celebrate the spirit of independent inquiry that drives it. show less

In 1815 young Daniel Connor, a medical student, has just arrived in Paris to further his studies when he finds he has been robbed by a fellow stagecoach passenger -- a mysterious woman surprisingly well-versed in natural history. Now lacking the documents and specimens needed to secure his post, Daniel must solve the mystery of the woman and why she would want a book manuscript and bits of coral.

I found this story to be enjoyable but not exactly riveting. I'm a fan of natural history myself, so it was refreshing to read about it, not merely as part of a work of fiction, but with an enlightened and sympathetic viewpoint. I haven't yet decided whether to pursue Stott's first novel, Ghostwalk.