In this prequel, the year is 1785 and Aristide Ravel helps put out a fire in a church where he meets Inspector Brasseur, an ex-neighbour of his. A few months later when Brasseur finds a body he 'invites' Ravel to view the body suspecting he might be the murderer (because of Ravel's subversive writings). Unlike other police Brasseur is convinced that he is innocent. So Ravel becomes a sub-Inspector and investigates with the Inspector to clear his name.
I enjoyed the mystery, and the style of writing which was very easy to read, and I like the portrayal of the characeters. This was my first book in the series that I have read but I will be looking to read the others. ( )

I finished this today and although it was a good story I am not overly enthusiastic about it. Ravel is the main character and is a struggling writer of seditious political pamphlets. This was not really interesting to me to read about, but luckily Ravel was quickly pulled into the investigation of a murder. Police inspector Brasseur questions Ravel first as a suspect, but quickly rules him out. However, Ravel's thoughts on the crime scene impress Brasseur and he presses Ravel into service as reluctant assistant in the investigation.

Although the characters were interesting, there were a great many of them and with foreign names I had a hard time remembering who was who. As far as the plot, I thought there was a great deal too much speculation about what may have happened during the crime and the subsequent coverup. The time devoted to speculation instead of actual investigation would have been better spent concentrating on Ravel's personal life. I may have gone on to try the next book in the series, but I found that all the ebooks were fairly inexpensive except for the second book, which is overpriced. This annoyed me to the extent that I probably won't read any further books. ( )

The Cavalier of the Apocalypse is a great start to what may be a promising series. This is actually the first of the series, despite the publishing date and so it is the first of the Aristide Ravel books I've read.

This is a historical mystery placed in late 18th century France. The writing is fantastic, allowing the reader to get swept away to another time and place in a manner that so many historical fiction books lack. I'm sure it's no easy feat to accomplish.

I'm a fan of murder mysteries and historical fiction so this series has a lot going for it already. So often in murder mysteries you feel like you're in Q&A overload where the inspector is simply going from place to place asking questions and picking up clues. The writing here is much more sophisticated in that you don't necessarily feel that you're jumping from place to place reading one sentence questions and one sentence answers. There is a lot more to the dialogue and descriptions than most books of this sort have.

The other thing that I admired about the book was the ending. So often these books simply drag the reader in a completely different direction only to pull a final gotcha at the end at which point you realize you didn't stand a chance on solving it yourself. Susanne Alleyn has managed to pull this off to some degree but in a way that doesn't insult the reader. Rather, you are left feeling like you genuinely got to experience a lot of what the detective was having to go through without having the wool pulled over your eyes.

I plan to read the next book in the series shortly and trust it will be worth the time. ( )

The Cavalier of the Apocalypse
Palace of Justice

I read these two back to back, something I rarely do with series novels. As it happened, they were both on my Kindle at a time when I felt like reading something on my Kindle. I finished the first, enjoyed it, and went right on to the second.

Actually I began with the third, Game of Patience, which had the earliest publication date. I quickly discovered that the two later titles preceded the first in narrative chronology, and so I put it aside in order to start with the backstory.

The setting is Paris during the French Revolution, a time of political turmoil and much shedding of blood, with the fanatical partisans of the Republic seeing foes everywhere, not only among closet royalists but even among less extreme advocates of their own cause.

Aristide Ravel begins as a political pamphleteer at a time when anonymous screeds of dubious veracity play a significant role in public affairs. A gruesome discovery causes him to be drawn into a police investigation of a series of bizarre murders. His participation is critical to the solution. In due course, if reluctantly, he becomes an assistant to the police inspector. Their work takes them into all quarters of Parisian life during one of the most turbulent periods of its history.

Alleyn's narratives have a strong feel of authenticity to them, a quality that I value highly in fiction. Despite a few traits that began to get on my nerves--particularly Ravel's recurring habit of mentally chasing something he can't quite remember, which suddenly becomes clear just in time to furnish a major clue--I liked the detective hero and the mysteries he solves. I will be continuing on to the third in the series. ( )

The book didn't spark with me. ( )