After writing two witty novels about homosexual life in Washington, D.C., Louis Bayard hit on a successful formulation along with his 2003 novel, Mr. Timothy, which starred Dickens’ Tiny Tim and gave the character a complexity that was sorely missing within the unique. He adopted that up with The Pale Blue Eye, a narrative of Edgar Allen Poe’s time as a cadet at West Point that earned an Edgar Award nomination. Now, Bayard turns his consideration to the turbulent French Restoration. The Black Tower places legendary French policeman and ex-con Vidocq (the inspiration for Victor Hugo’s Jean Valjean) along with medical scholar Hector Carpentier to seek out out what actually occurred to the son of Marie Antoinette and Louis XVI.
A clue in a useless man’s pocket leads Vidocq to Hector, whose late father, a health care provider, handled the Dauphin throughout his imprisonment. Though information present the boy died within the tower, a long-lost diary and a assassin who appears to be stalking Hector and anybody else with a connection to the boy-who-should-be-king point out in any other case. Could Charles Rapskeller, a younger man with an affinity for gardening, actually be Prince Louis-Charles?
Bayard has a specific expertise, additionally displayed in Mr. Timothy, for evoking the poignancy of the eager for a misplaced father with out being overly sentimental. In the years following the Dauphin’s “death,” the senior Carpentier grew to become closed off from his household and associates, and it is just by studying his journals that Hector discovers how a lot he was cherished by his father. Though he and Charles are shut in age, Hector finds himself taking on his father’s function as Charles’ protector, whereas Vidocq goads him on in pursuit of definitive proof of Charles’ royal lineage.
In his earlier novels, Bayard has had the braveness to maintain the ending trustworthy—as in life, not each unfastened finish is left neatly tied. The Black Tower isn’t any exception, and it features a remaining twist that can depart even the closest of readers flipping again by means of the pages to seek out clues they’ve ignored. A wonderfully balanced mix of compelling characters, elegant writing and spellbinding plot, The Black Tower will preserve followers of historic fiction riveted.
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