Over the course of his last two novels, Louis Bayard has carved a successful and acclaimed niche for himself with the type of historical fiction that uses actual figures from history as his protagonists. He previously imagined Charles Dickens’ Tiny Tim as an adult in TIMOTHY, and then Edgar Allan Poe as a detective in THE PALE BLUE EYE.
His latest work, THE BLACK TOWER, also involves a mystery, only this time in the late 19th century, during that strange period of French history after Napoleon’s defeat at Waterloo, known as The Restoration.
That fact alone might turn off readers not familiar with French history. And the first three pages of the book, containing a chronology of events before the time of the novel and a family tree of the Burbons, doesn’t look encouraging. (“Is there going to be a test after this?”)
Relax! Give those pages a quick glance and proceed to the story itself. One of the several pleasures of this novel is the way Bayard eases the essential historical facts into the narrative. You’ll soon find yourself going back to those listings, just to get a better grasp of thing. But the chief pleasure of THE BLACK TOWER is its central historical figure: Eugene Francois Vidocq.
The real Vidocq (1775-1857) was originally a criminal who later became a member of the French Police. With his knowledge of the criminal mind, along with his mastery of disguise and surveillance, he soon became France’s most legendary and feared crime-solver. He founded the first French plainclothes investigative force (made up entirely of former criminals) and instituted many procedures still in use today. Stories related about his various cases and detecting skills were so popular that he was often considered supernatural, if not demonic.
The novel begins one evening in 1818. As young medical student Hector Carpentier returns home to his mother’s boarding house, he is approached by a neighborhood street beggar. But the beggar turns out to be Vidocq in disguise, who has been following him. A man has been murdered a few blocks from the Carpentier house, and Hector is suspected of the crime. Vidocq produces a note the dead man was carrying, bearing Hector’s name and address. Hector insists his innocence, and then finds himself swept up in Vidocq’s investigation, often struggling to keep up with the detective.
As events progress, Vidocq and Hector discover that the murder and its various suspects are all related to the sad (and factual) story of the dauphin Louis-Charles, also know as Louis XVII. During the violent days of the French Revolution, Louis-Charles, the son of Marie-Antionette and King Louis XVI, was imprisoned and spent his entire childhood under guard in a building called The Temple, known to most Parisians as the Black Tower.
Then, in 1795, Louis-Charles’ death in The Temple was announced. But Vidocq and Hector find themselves on the trail of a secret conspiracy surrounding the life of young dauphin — one that involved the murder victim and possibly Hector’s father.
For a story so dependant upon and laden with historical references, the pacing is nothing short of amazing. From the very first chapter, you feel as though you are reading the work of a seasoned crime author who skillfully transforms events into a bona fide page-turner. Yet Bayard also captures the cultured and refined voice of Hector’s background and education in that period. And it sounds pitch perfect.
With all his theatrical flourishes and pronouncements, it’s a wonder that Vidocq has not been the star of hundreds of previous fictional works. He was believed to have been the inspiration for Poe’s Auguste Dupin, and was an associate of and inspiration for characters by both Victor Hugo and Honoré de Balzac. In Bayard’s hands, especially utilizing Hector’s first-person account, Vidoq becomes the perfect Holmes to Hector’s equally effective Watson. Even the final series of revelations in the concluding chapters has the feel of a classical period mystery.
So don’t allow any inexperience of French history keep you from THE BLACK TOWER. Jump in and enjoy it the way you would any solid, reliable and entertaining mystery. You just might find yourself wanting to know a little more about 17th-century France. And a lot more about Eugene Francois Vidocq. —Alan Cranis
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{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
“this time in the late 17th century, during that strange period of French history after Napoleon’s defeat at Waterloo, known as The Restoration.” — a strange period, indeed, as Napoleon was defeated in the early nineteenth century. Could it be that the LHC experiments affected our space-time continuum? or perhaps just the reviewer’s?
It’s the reviewer’s — my error, that is. Never could get those century numberings right. Thanks for setting things right. Still, I did say you didn’t have to be an expert in French history to enjoy the book.