Tue 3 Aug 2010
Reviewed by LJ Roberts: SUSANNE ALLEYN – A Treasury of Regrets.
Posted by Steve under Bibliographies, Lists & Checklists , Characters , Reviews[7] Comments
Reviews by L. J. Roberts
SUSANNE ALLEYN – A Treasury of Regrets. St.Martin’s Press, hardcover, April 2007.
Genre: Historical mystery. Leading character: Aristide Ravel; 4th in series; 2nd published (see below). Setting: France, 1797.
First Sentence: Since the twenty-fourth of Frimaire, Aristide Ravel had dreamed at least a dozen times of the guillotine.
It begins with the poisoning death of Martin Dupont, the controlling head of a large household. A servant girl, Jeannette Moineau, is arrested. A member of the house, Laurence, asks the police for help as she does not believe the girl is guilty.
Police investigator Aristide Ravel agrees to work with her, also discovering there is another link between them from the past. As others die, Ravel continues to search for motive believing if he finds the motive, he’ll find the killer.
Ms. Alleyn does know how to bring post-Revolution Paris alive. Best of all, we come to know the period from the characters; their memories, the awkwardness in speech tying to confirm to the new forms of address, the new calendar and the challenges living day-to-day. It is enough past the Revolution that there is not the high level of fear, but recent enough that you sense people’s uncertainty.
Aristide is a complex and interesting character, but although his back story was provided, he never really came to life. In spite of the personal connection between him and Laurence, I sensed no chemistry or emotional connection. Even at the end, rather than being left with a sense of curiosity, I found I didn’t particularly need to know what happens. For the other characters, perhaps because there were so many of them, none of them were well developed.
The story has a very powerful opening. Fascinating information is provided on the different figures involved in the Revolution, and the impact on the monetary structure. The plot, however, was very slow until about half-way through. As we progressed, I felt there was a rather too convenient twist and huge leaps in logic made to bring us to the proper conclusions.
In spite of the positive elements, and there were some, I did not find this book as engrossing as the previous books in the series. Had this been the first book I’d read of this series, I might not read another.
Fortunately, I have read the other two books published so far, and I loved them. I have great hopes that the next book will restore my faith in this author.
Rating: Okay.
The Aristide Ravel series:
1. Game of Patience (2006) [Book Three; 1796]
2. A Treasury of Regrets (2007) [Book Four; 1797]
3. The Cavalier of the Apocalypse (2009) [Book One; 1786]
4. Palace of Justice (2010) [Book Two; 1793]
August 4th, 2010 at 12:23 am
It’s difficult to write a murder mystery set against a background as bloody as the French Revolution since by nature there is the implication in a murder tale that the death of one individual is important, and against so bloody a background it can be hard to maintain that.
Since I like this period of history I may try this series despite the lukewarm review. It’s an area that hasn’t been used much though I’ve read a few set in Napoleoninc times or England in that period. I’ve read a few thrillers along Scarlet Pimpernel lines, but mysteries set in France in this era seem rare.
August 4th, 2010 at 3:16 am
Yes, you’re right. All I can think of are the Pimpernel stories too, which as you say were thrillers, not detective stories.
I should read one of these stories myself. If Aristide Ravel really is doing detective work in this particular time and place, this series of books he’s in may really be unique.
I’ll ask my daughter. She’s an expert on historical fiction. Maybe she can come up with someone we’re both not thinking of.
August 4th, 2010 at 10:35 am
Please do give the series a try! (Start with Cavalier.) I like to say that I write historical novels that happen to be mysteries, and are minutely researched and inextricably entwined with historical events (something not remotely found in the…shudder…Pimpernel novels, which have only the vaguest connection with actual history and are insanely biased against the whole concept of the French Revolution, which wasn’t all bad by any means…
There is actually another series of mysteries set in the Revolutionary period, by retired historian Charles O’Brien. I haven’t read any of them, for obvious reasons, so can’t say whether they’re great or awful. 🙂
Susanne
August 4th, 2010 at 11:57 am
Susanne:
Starting with CAVALIER, the first in the series chronologically, makes a lot of sense to me, and it’s what I’d tentatively decided to do. Thanks for stopping by to confirm it!
Charles O’Brien is a new name to me, but it’s the same name that my daughter Sarah suggested. Here’s her email reply to me:
Hi Dad
Charles O’Brien has a series set during the French Revolution.
http://www.mutewitness.com/
Apart from Alleyn and him, I can’t think of others!
— Sarah
I’ve taken a look at O’Brien’s website, and discovered about eight books in the series, and as I say, all new to me.
August 4th, 2010 at 12:02 pm
Even though this wasn’t my favorite book of the series, it is an very good series overall. David, I do hope you give it a try. Cavalier (#1) was very good and Game of Patience (#2) was excellent.
Unfortunately, Ms. Alleyn’s publisher is having her write the books out of time sequence. The next (Palace of Justice), which will be the fourth published in November 2010, will actually be the 2nd in time sequence.
August 4th, 2010 at 12:39 pm
While I still enjoy the Pimpernel books it isn’t for their evocation of the historical facts, simply as entertaining melodrama and source of fun. Baroness Orczy, who herself escaped a revolution in her native Hungary with her family thanks to a real Pimpernel (according to her anyway), was naturally a bit prejudiced on the subject.
It’s an interesting period to set a mystery in. Other than these the only books I can think of set in the era and at least thrillers are Dennis Wheatley’s early Roger Brook novels which cover the era from just before the Revolution through the fall of Napoleon. A few books set in England during the period, such as Dr. Morelle creator Ernest Dudley’s THE PICAROON, touch on the Revolution but mostly as a side issue for getting Count Cagliostro to England where he can run afoul of George Barrington the real life Picaroon (not to be confused with Herman Landon’s gentleman crook of the same nom de guerre).
The Napoleonic era has been a bit more common to the mystery novel with several coming to mind both series and individual titles, but even Dumas goes right up to the Revolution and picks up right at the end of it, but mostly avoids the actual period itself ss does Sabatini’s SCARAMOUCHE and SCARAMOUCHE KINGMAKER.
So two series set during the Revolutionary period sound well worth delving into. Most novels set in the period, including Lauren Willig’s best selling novels, take their cue from the Pimpernel or a TALE OF TWO CITIES and use the Revolution as a colorful background for adventure and drama rather than history, and certainly not mystery.
As I said, it takes a skillful hand to make the death of a single individual work as a plot device against a background of so much violence and death. Philip Kerr did it for the era of the Nazi rise in his Bernie Gunther novels and Hans Helmut Kirst wrote several good mystery novels with a WW II setting in both Germany and Occupied France as have a few others in recent years, so it is good to see the French Revolution is getting its turn.
August 4th, 2010 at 12:46 pm
I’m not comparing the French Revolution to Nazism save as a period of social upheaval and violence. For all its excess the Revolution was not only justified, but had numerous positive aspects. That it went too far, grew too bloody, and ultimately failed in its great goals far from takes away from either its importance or impact. Far too much written about it has been done from the outside looking in and far too little from the inside looking out.