The Black Tower, by Louis Bayard

Short chapters, action across 19th-century Paris, and a scene-stealing detective make this historical thriller a quick, entertaining read. Hector Carpentier’s name and address are found in a dead man’s trousers, bringing the shabby medical student to the attention of the Paris police. Specifically, to the attention of Eugène François Vidocq, whose larger-than-life career as ex-convict turned police spy has made him the terror of the Paris underworld.

It’s a generation after the bloody Revolution, and France is literally waving a white flag—the colors of the Bourbon kings, recently restored to the throne. The mystery involves the possible reappearance of the dauphin Louis-Charles, who supposedly died in the Temple Prison after his royal parents went to the guillotine. But if Louis-Charles didn’t die, then the throne’s current occupant is out of a job. Powerful men have good reason to want the dauphin to stay dead, leading to trouble for Hector, unwillingly tied to the case by the long-ago actions of a father he barely knew.

I enjoyed this setting; the down-on-their-luck aristocrats including the Duchesse d’Angoulême, Marie Antoinette’s melancholy daughter; and shocking encounters in crypts and at the foot of the guillotine. My only regret is that the plot, played out via just-discovered diaries and well-timed third-party confessionals, doesn’t leave detective Vidocq much to deduce. He is reduced instead to a series of amazing disguises, to cheerfully terrorizing the citizens of Paris with his reputation, and to wooing its citoyennes with equal enthusiasm. I don’t think Bayard intends to continue with this character, but if he wanted to, Vidocq could easily carry his own series.

And talk about perfect timing: I had just finished The Lost King of France, a popular history investigating the demise of the unfortunate dauphin as well as the many pretenders who surfaced to claim his crown. The two books dovetail perfectly.

Check the WRL catalog for The Black Tower.