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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 France's 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 Paris's 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 Hector’s name has been found on a scrap of paper in the dead man's pocket: a case for the unparalleled deductive skills of Eugène François Vidocq, the most feared man in the Paris police. At first suspicious of Hector's 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 Paris's 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 Hector's 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, history's first great detective.
Review:
"A compelling and sympathetic narrator instantly draws the reader into Bayard's stellar third historical. In 1818, the notorious Vidocq, a master detective who's rumored to work on both sides of the law, pulls 26-year-old Parisian doctor Hector Carpentier into a torture-murder inquiry. The victim, Chrtien Leblanc, died without revealing that he was on his way to visit Carpentier, news that comes as a complete shock to the doctor, as the dead man was a stranger to him. Vidocq soon discovers that Leblanc was actually in search of Carpentier's late father, who bore the same name. The elder Carpentier cared for Louis-Charles, Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette's young son, who died in prison in 1795. Bayard keeps the reader guessing until the end, though the puzzle aspect is less prominent than in his previous novel, The Pale Blue Eye, which featured Edgar Allan Poe as sleuth. Few writers today can match the author's skill in devising an intelligent thriller with heart. (Sept.)" Publishers Weekly (Starred Review) (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)
Review:
The fate of the boy-king Louis XVII, the second son of Marie Antoinette, has been grist for many mills over the years. Hoaxers and impostors, conspiracy buffs, royalist plotters, historians and, most recently, Deborah Cadbury in her 2002 best-seller, "The Lost King of France": All have poked skeptically at the events surrounding the supposed death of the 10-year-old boy who became king of France --... Washington Post Book Review (read the entire Washington Post review) in name at least — after the guillotine fell on his father, Louis XVI, in 1793. The official story is that Louis XVII died of tuberculosis in 1795 after spending his last years in a grim, vermin-infested prison. Or did he? As in the case of Anastasia Romanova, rumors of an escape have fertilized many an imagination. One scenario had the boy spirited to America and raised by an Iroquois chieftain before becoming an Episcopalian minister in Upstate New York. So many rightful kings of France eventually popped up that Mark Twain lampooned them in "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn," and Bram Stoker heaped scorn in "Famous Impostors." One intriguing candidate promoted by the gossips and conspiracy buffs was John James Audubon. A canny self-publicist with a strong romantic streak, Audubon had little desire to quash the rumors. The mystery of the doomed boy-king is the subject of Louis Bayard's new novel, "The Black Tower." It's a clever follow-on from his two previous historical thrillers, "Mr. Timothy" and "The Pale Blue Eye." Like them, "The Black Tower" weaves history and fiction together in the trademark style — linguistic brio, a slickly unfolding plot, a raft of colorful characters — that has propelled Bayard's work into the upper reaches of the historical-thriller league. The setting is Paris in 1818. Napoleon is in prison, and France's "senseless experiments with democracy and empire" have ended. The Bourbons are back on the throne in the person of the fat, gouty Louis XVIII, younger brother of the beheaded king. Scraping by in this uncertain new world is Hector Carpentier, a down-at-heel 26-year-old medical student, "thin and pink and inclined to catch cold." Having squandered his modest inheritance on a dancer, he aimlessly performs experiments on mesmerism at the university and lives in the Latin Quarter with his mother and several obnoxious lodgers. Hector's dull routine is disturbed when he learns a man named Leblanc has been murdered nearby. Two things are noteworthy about the mysterious Leblanc. One, he has been insisting that Louis XVII is still alive. Many others are saying the same, but the fact that Leblanc is dead — he was tortured and then stabbed — means his claim merits a bit more attention. Two, Hector's name and address are, inexplicably, found in Leblanc's trousers. Enter Eugene Francois Vidocq, Paris' "scourge of crime." With Vidocq, Bayard pulls off a coup worthy of his previous novels, in which he revived characters both real (Edgar Allan Poe in "The Pale Blue Eye") and imagined (Dickens' Tiny Tim Cratchit in "Mr. Timothy"). The real-life Vidocq, a former petty criminal who set up Napoleon's security police, was the most famous crime fighter of the 19th century. Said to have inspired a whole crop of fictional detectives, from Victor Hugo's Inspector Javert and Poe's Auguste Dupin to Sherlock Holmes, he even did a cinematic turn in Pitof's 2001 sci-fi thriller "Vidocq," with no less than Gerard Depardieu in the title role. In Bayard's hands, Vidocq becomes an arrogant, bullying, wine-swilling, foul-smelling underworld spy and master of disguise — and an utterly compelling character. As he barges through Paris' wine shops and aristocratic hotels with an unwilling Hector in tow, we get a bit of "CSI: Paris," with plaster casts taken of shoeprints and green-bottle flies used to determine time of death. But beneath these cloak-and-poignard adventures, a human story unfolds through a series of terse and moving journal entries: that of the imprisoned boy horribly mistreated so that his "stigma of royalty" can be removed, and of the man who tried to — and maybe did? — save him. Hector and Vidocq are confronted by the puzzle of a pitifully damaged young man calling himself Charles Rapskeller, who may or may not be the lost prince. And Hector finds himself delving into his own family history as deeply as he does the Bourbons': the withdrawn, disappointed father he never really knew; the doleful, censorious mother who was once a revolutionary firebrand. Bayard is a fearlessly confident writer. Who else would dare risk comparisons with Dickens and Poe? Here it's history and legend he's up against, and the truth is sometimes stranger than his fiction: Rapskeller, a simple-minded, flower-loving innocent, is less tantalizing as a pretender than some of the real-life claimants. (John James Audubon plotting to overthrow the French monarchy — now there's a rip-roaring yarn waiting to be told.) Still, Bayard's ending neatly yanks the Aubusson rug out from under our feet, and along the way we are treated to all of the narrative verve and sly wit — both plot twists and turns of phrase — that make his books such a pleasure to read. Reviewed by Ross King, whose most recent book is 'Machiavelli: Philosopher of Power', Washington Post Book World (Copyright 2006 Washington Post Book World Service/Washington Post Writers Group) (hide most of this review)
Review:
"[A] delicious new historical mystery....[Bayard] manages to imbue his characters with real soul. You may find yourself, more than two centuries after the fact, aching over the fate of the pitiful young Dauphin. (Grade: A-)" Entertainment Weekly
Review:
"The novel's witty succession of trapdoor endings...keeps surprising us long after it seems Bayard's plot has nowhere else to go. Who says they don't write 'em like this anymore? Long may Bayard reign." Kirkus Reviews (Starred Review)
Review:
"Bayard's well-crafted mix of history and suspense keeps this novel from getting bogged down in historical trivia. Recommended." Library Journal
Synopsis:
The acclaimed author of Mr. Timothy and The Pale Blue Eye has constructed another spellbinding historical mystery about a real-life convict who transformed himself into the world's first modern detective.
Louis Bayard is the author of the national bestseller The Pale Blue Eye and Mr. Timothy, a New York Times Notable book. A staff writer for Salon.com, Bayard has written articles and reviews for the New York Times, the Washington Post, Nerve.com, and Preservation, among others. Bayard lives in Washington, D.C.
QuetziLibros, July 24, 2008 (view all comments by QuetziLibros)
The author, Louis Bayard, takes us on a harrowing adventure in to the lives of Hector Carpentier, once a respected physician who now lives with is mother who has turned her home into a boarding house to make ends meet. A suspicious murder leads the most feared detective in all of Paris, Eugene Francois Vidocq to Hector's door. I found Vidocq to be a mixture of a modern day frumpy Columbo, with a mastery for disguise befitting the famous Sherlock Holmes. As Vidocq, who has ties with Paris's underground investigates you are drawn into the story about a little boy being held in The Black Tower, who is rumored to be the late Marie Antoinette's son, the Dauphin! Bayard is a brilliant author who makes you feel like you are living in the story! I couldn't put this book down until I finished it! The mystery continues to the very last page. It's a real spellbinder! Bayard is now on my list of favorite authors! You MUST READ his series!
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Product details
368 pages
William Morrow -
English9780061173509
Reviews:
"Publishers Weekly Review"
by Publishers Weekly,
"A compelling and sympathetic narrator instantly draws the reader into Bayard's stellar third historical. In 1818, the notorious Vidocq, a master detective who's rumored to work on both sides of the law, pulls 26-year-old Parisian doctor Hector Carpentier into a torture-murder inquiry. The victim, Chrtien Leblanc, died without revealing that he was on his way to visit Carpentier, news that comes as a complete shock to the doctor, as the dead man was a stranger to him. Vidocq soon discovers that Leblanc was actually in search of Carpentier's late father, who bore the same name. The elder Carpentier cared for Louis-Charles, Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette's young son, who died in prison in 1795. Bayard keeps the reader guessing until the end, though the puzzle aspect is less prominent than in his previous novel, The Pale Blue Eye, which featured Edgar Allan Poe as sleuth. Few writers today can match the author's skill in devising an intelligent thriller with heart. (Sept.)" Publishers Weekly (Starred Review) (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)
"Review"
by Entertainment Weekly,
"[A] delicious new historical mystery....[Bayard] manages to imbue his characters with real soul. You may find yourself, more than two centuries after the fact, aching over the fate of the pitiful young Dauphin. (Grade: A-)"
"Review"
by Kirkus Reviews (Starred Review),
"The novel's witty succession of trapdoor endings...keeps surprising us long after it seems Bayard's plot has nowhere else to go. Who says they don't write 'em like this anymore? Long may Bayard reign."
"Review"
by Library Journal,
"Bayard's well-crafted mix of history and suspense keeps this novel from getting bogged down in historical trivia. Recommended."
"Synopsis"
by Ingram,
The acclaimed author of Mr. Timothy and The Pale Blue Eye has constructed another spellbinding historical mystery about a real-life convict who transformed himself into the world's first modern detective.
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