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Death in the Latin Quarter

by Raphael Cardetti

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677391,669 (3)None
Early one morning among the magnificent honey-coloured buildings of the Sorbonne, the tranquillity of the university is shattered by a death. But why would Albert Cadas, a quiet, crumpled professor of medieval literature, have any reason to kill himself? Meanwhile in another part of Paris, Valentine Savi, a talented young restorer, receives a visit in her studio from an enigmatic elderly gentleman with a unique commission: to restore a priceless medieval palimpsest whose timeworn pages promise to reveal the truth of a mystery that has fascinated scholars and writers for hundreds of years. Valentine soon learns that the shadowy figures who seek to possess the secrets of the manuscript are far darker and more ruthless than she could ever have imagined... Together with her friend Hugo Vermeer -- aristocrat, epicure and incorrigible wheeler-dealer -- and David Scotto, Cadas's doctoral student, Valentine finds herself on a terrifying and thrilling adventure through the narrow streets and gloomily palatial mansions of the Latin Quarter.… (more)
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English (6)  French (1)  All languages (7)
Showing 1-5 of 6 (next | show all)
Raphaël Cardetti, as someone who works in the Sorbonne, undoubtedly knows more about academia than most people who try to set murder mysteries in such a location. And I suppose if someone does feel the need to cash in on the post-Da Vinci Code craze for thrillers involving long lost medieval artefacts, better him writing one than the alternative.

The only problem is that Death in the Latin Quarter is that it's readable but it's really not very good. There are problems with the prose that clearly can't be attributed solely to the fact that this is a translation from French—lots of hopping around from one point of view to the other, sometimes between one sentence and the next, lots of addressing people by epithets, awkward and unbelievable dialogue. Characters are stock clichés, the villain is one step away from having a moustache to twirl, and there's one Nice Guy character with whom I think we're supposed to empathise but who I just found irritating. ( )
  siriaeve | Aug 27, 2013 |
DEATH IN THE LATIN QUARTER is the first novel by Raphael Cardetti, translated from the original French, released in English in 2010. Categorised on the cover as a "treasure-hunt tale", this is a book set in the halls of academia and the world of art collection, restoration and museums.

The story, as outlined in the blurb, revolves around Valentine Savi, a talented young restorer, taking in private commissions to clean and restore artwork on behalf of the great general public. She has fallen from grace, fired from a prestigious job after a mistake, which is slowly revealed as the book goes on. After being approached by an enigmatic elderly man with a unique commission, she quickly finds herself involved in nefarious plots to possess an ancient manuscript and the secrets it allegedly holds.

Okay, up front, I really really struggled to finish this book. Originally I thought it might be a slight personal wariness that I feel about these great artwork / secrets from the past / enigmatic old millionaires / playing fast and loose with everyone around them type scenarios. There were a number of things that worried me about this book: why we couldn't just confirm what had happened to make Savi lose her job so that we could all move on (it wasn't hard to take an educated guess after all). Why the Dean even had time to develop such a hump with some poor hapless student (and quite what all that was supposed to be about anyway). Why so many millionaire art-collectors have to be "enigmatic"; and most of all why their assistants have to be gorgeous, wound up like a top, perfectly coiffed blonde women (for that matter why are their bodyguards always "disguised" as the chauffeur and built like the proverbial without a brain cell to spare). And I haven't even mentioned the compound, the state of the art security system that wasn't, and the security consultant who would have been better paying more attention to the aforementioned state of the art security system, and a lot less to lusting after the main female characters. Whilst these sorts of books are very much about the manipulation of the reader experience, there must be something in the storytelling that makes the reader willing to go along with the obvious tension building, and I couldn't, no matter how hard I tried, swallow a lot of it.

At one point I thought I'd nailed the problem, assuming I'd missed a subtle sense of humour. Maybe the story was teasing me, it was supposed to be slightly tongue in cheek, and I'd misread the tone completely... Toiling on through the book, I looked for these signs, but I simply couldn't find them. Instead I found an increasing pile of overt red herrings, a bit of romantic tension, much rushing around and a hefty dose of telegraphed character-jep that would have made a movie fan pitch Jaffa's at the screen. As the pace tried to pick up in the book, my ability to stick with it was getting less and less. The villains were too much, the bad guy too obvious, the characterisations too clichéd and the plot too transparent for my taste. ( )
  austcrimefiction | Feb 20, 2012 |
A scholar appears to have committed suicide in the Sorbonne, and he was in possession of a valuable document which several people want to obtain. Although the investigation of his death is not the center of the plot, it is important for the resolution of the puzzles set by the author, therefore, the book has a structure which is very similar to a detective story. There are several characters which are central to the plot and which drive the action: a young female restorer, a PhD student who was researching with the deceased scholar, a mysterious art collector, several academics interested in old books.... the author manages to create an interesting plot, which is better than most in the genre, and which offers a good characterization of university life. It is an entertaining and engaging book. ( )
  alalba | Oct 26, 2011 |
Valentine Savi was once a highly regarded restorer at the Louvre until she made a mistake that resulted in the destruction of a priceless document. Since then she has been reduced to working for herself, restoring pedestrian rather than valuable works. Elias Stern is making her an offer she can't resist, to redeem herself, but why has he chosen her?

Valentine always likes to find out the background to the works she is restoring and the more she finds out about Stern's medieval manuscript the more intrigued she becomes. She confides in her friend Hugo Vermeer who lets the world know what Valentine is doing. And from there the action escalates. Some one else wants to get their hands on the manuscript and will stop at nothing to get it.

There are a number of little mysteries in this novel, starting with the one about Valentine's disgrace, and that is what keeps us reading to some extent.

DEATH IN THE LATIN QUARTER is quite assured for a debut novel although there were a couple of characters that I could cheerfully have strangled. As the action escalates the reader is required to let go the limits of credibility, but then, don't we do that in all thrillers anyway?

By the time the action comes to an end there have been a number of very messy deaths and we finally do know why Elias Stern approached Valentine in the first place.

So, not a bad effort - I would try another by this author.
Raphael Cardetti is currently a Professor of Italian History, specialising in the Renaissance, at the Sorbonne University. ( )
  smik | Sep 26, 2011 |
The latest entry into the post-Da Vinci Code grail-quest genre thriller, though rather better written than most of them. In this twist on the familiar theme the action is set largely in or around the Sorbonne, and starts with the apparent suicide of an eminent scholar of medieval arcana.
Needless to say, there is a priceless document at the root of his problems, and Cardetti spends the next three hundred pages leading the reader through a complex maze of red herrings. However, he always retains the reader's interest through his deft plotting and detailed (though not obsessive) descriptions of the various Parisian locations.
My biggest gripe with this book was that there was not one character for whom I felt any vestige of sympathy or empathy. I found the denouement slightly inconclusive, too. ( )
  Eyejaybee | Aug 4, 2011 |
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Early one morning among the magnificent honey-coloured buildings of the Sorbonne, the tranquillity of the university is shattered by a death. But why would Albert Cadas, a quiet, crumpled professor of medieval literature, have any reason to kill himself? Meanwhile in another part of Paris, Valentine Savi, a talented young restorer, receives a visit in her studio from an enigmatic elderly gentleman with a unique commission: to restore a priceless medieval palimpsest whose timeworn pages promise to reveal the truth of a mystery that has fascinated scholars and writers for hundreds of years. Valentine soon learns that the shadowy figures who seek to possess the secrets of the manuscript are far darker and more ruthless than she could ever have imagined... Together with her friend Hugo Vermeer -- aristocrat, epicure and incorrigible wheeler-dealer -- and David Scotto, Cadas's doctoral student, Valentine finds herself on a terrifying and thrilling adventure through the narrow streets and gloomily palatial mansions of the Latin Quarter.

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