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Palace Of Justice (2010)

by Susanne Alleyn(Favorite Author)

3.9 of 5 Votes: 1

ISBN

0312379897 (ISBN13: 9780312379896)

languge

English

genre

Historical Fiction

publisher

Minotaur Books

series

Aristide Ravel - author's suggested reading order

review 1: Historical Mystery set at the height of the French Revolution 1793 #2 in the Aristide Ravel seriesHeadless corpses are being found littered in the streets of Paris that have nothing to do with the guillotine.Out of the 4 books in the series, this one is my favorite by far. There are so many plots and subplots and the mystery seems to thicken at every corner. You can tell this novel was very well researched. Alleyn does a superb job at creating the climate of uncertainty where anyone can literally lose their head. The resolution is so unpredictable and satisfying that I doubt anyone would see it coming. I love Aristide’s character and the rich historical detail of the series. A great read. Note: I read these books in the wrong order. Although “Palace of Justice... more” is the most recently published in the series, it is actually book #2 chronologically.
review 2: A Tale of Two RevolutionsAs a reader who has thus far found only dreck masquerading as historical fiction about the French Revolution, I despaired that anyone other than the rather dense Hilary Mantel would ever get it right. Beginning with the abysmal Tale of Two Cities [I don’t care if people think Dickens is a literary icon not to be disparaged—he got the entire Revolution wrong, and peopled it with saccharine characters], and the smarmy and ridiculous Scarlet Pimpernel, and on and on through a number of recent attempts by authors whose books should have been stillborn. They all follow the predictable, inaccurate, and fatuous parade of poor, defenseless aristocrats, the saintly Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette, and above all, the bloody Revolution in the wake of the countless hundreds of innocents guillotined every day by rabid revolutionaries frothing at the mouth.But wait! This book, the chronologically second book in the Aristide Ravel series of mysteries, arrives like a much overdue breath of fresh literary and historical air to sweep away all the stale, stagnant air that had been stifling me, and anyone else who has the slightest historical clue. The story is not a straightforward tale of a bewildering number of headless corpses scattered around Paris like so much refuse, with nothing to link them to one another, a mystery for Ravel to solve in his capacity as freelance police investigator, a role with which he has become more or less comfortable. The mystery echoes the slowly increasing number of individuals condemned by the Revolutionary Tribunals in the wake of the Law of Suspects and sent to the guillotine. The mystery also serves as an uneasy counterpoint to the fate of one of Ravel’s boyhood friends, Mathieu Alexandre, a revolutionary whose Girondin—or Brissotin—ideas have fallen afoul of the more radical Jacobins in power. The mystery gives us the opportunity to experience Paris in uncomfortable, somber, and often frantic moods, where the vivid descriptions of twisting streets and alleys, cafes, public buildings, and spartan living quarters touch all the senses and become real, for want of a better word. Finally, the mystery shows us the further development of the protagonist, who is not here the same man he was in the first chronological book, Cavalier of the Apocalypse. He is far more than a clever persona solving a murder mystery. He is someone who can express a bitter sarcasm at the “sanctioned beheading” of a person found guilty of treason at the same time he deplores the beheading of a random, poor prostitute dumped in an alleyway. He can believe in the Revolution, to a point, at the same time he grieves over the fate of his friend at the hands of revolutionaries. He can be strong, and even a bit brave in confronting criminals and the results of their handiwork, but he cannot watch the execution of his friend, even when he knows his presence would help him.Folks, it takes a special talent, and a rare one indeed, to present a complex mystery, describe a vanished world with such accuracy and literary grace, and give us characters, all of them, about whom we can care, and with whom we can identify. It also takes talent to first understand the history of the period that is not just a convenient backdrop to the story but also a character of sorts itself, and then present that history flawlessly, without error. I can say that because I can spot anything incorrect about the Revolution, and about Paris, from 100 paces, and nail it dead. What an enormous relief then to read a book start to finish without once having reached for my yellow highlighter. less

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