The Black Tower (Hardcover)

~ (Author)
Key Phrases: Louis Bayard, Father Time, Monsieur Leblanc (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred 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, Chrétien 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.)
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From Bookmarks Magazine

Bayard draws his inspiration from history, and in this tight historical thriller, he revisits the tumultuous period following France’s Reign of Terror and Restoration. Vidocq, the first director of France’s Sûreté Nationale, is such a compelling real-life figure that not only does he make for a first-rate character study in The Black Tower—but he also served as the inspiration for Victor Hugo’s Jean Valjean and Inspector Javert in Les Misérables. If Vidocq—by turns scary and larger-than-life—steals the show, other characters, including the sympathetic Carpentier, are no less compelling. The suspenseful plot, a jigsaw of history and identity; ornate, period-driven prose; and a sharp eye for setting and cultural mores elevate The Black Tower into a memorable novel.
Copyright 2008 Bookmarks Publishing LLC

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 368 pages
• Publisher: William Morrow; First Edition edition (August 26, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0061173509
• ISBN-13: 978-0061173509
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (74 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #172,955 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Well-written & well-researched -- really takes you to 19th century Paris, July 27, 2008

By	J. Fuchs "jax76" (Los Angeles, CA United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

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SPOILER-FREE REVIEW -- nothing more than the publisher has already disclosed

This is a book that grabs you from sentence one and doesn't let go until the end. Louis Bayard has accomplished something rare in historical fiction: using a first person account, he manages to put the reader in a time and place, in this case 19th century Paris, without resorting to long descriptions the narrator wouldn't bother to make. His Paris comes alive organically, with all of its characters -- from the poor living in rat-infested squalor, to the petite bourgeousie, the nobility, and criminals and royalty -- and describes the smells, the monuments, the political climate, the weather and so many other period details so as to make you feel like you are there. That he also writes beautifully and has crafted a story that unfolds exquisitely and at a perfect pace makes this a great read and one I will want to return to again and again.

The narrator in question is Hector Carpentier, a doctor of sorts, who has frittered away his family's cash and whose mother has turned their home into a boarding house. He is drafted into helping solve a murder by feared police inspector Vidocq, an actual historical character, and in the process discovers that Louis-Charles (Louis the 17th), the son of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette, believed killed as a child by revolutionaries under Napoleon, may still be alive.

While the real star of the book is Restoration Paris itself, Vidocq is a close second in all his animal ferocity and uncanny brilliance. Think a French Sherlock Holmes with an edge. The supporting characters are fleshed out beautifully, both men and women, rich and poor, and I'm not describing them because their identity and characters unfold with the twists and turns in the story and are best savored without knowing too much going in. Every time I thought the story had nowhere to go, it went somewhere new, and the characters continued to develop in their complexity and nuance.

At last the Vine program has provided fiction about which I can rave. This is historical fiction at its best.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing, July 17, 2008

By	K. Huff (New York, NY) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

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The Black Tower is a what-could-have-been murder mystery. Set in 1818, not long after Napoleon had been deposed and the French monarchy reinstated, the novel begins when a man is found murdered in the streets of Paris, carrying a calling card with Dr. Hector Carpentier's name on it.

Enter Eugene Francois Vidocq, one of the most legendary and feared detectives of the early 19th century (and such an influence that Victor Hugo modeled both Jean Valjean and Inspector Javert on him; a Wikipedia search on Vidocq reveals that he is credited with introducing record-keeping, criminology, and ballistics to the field of criminal investigation). Vidocq has just established the very first plainclothes police force, said to be composed of some very dangerous ex-cons. It's into this world, where the line between the law and crime is smudged, that Dr. Hector Carpentier enters.

On the surface, the dead man, Leblanc, and Carpentier have nothing in common. But the mystery soon leads Carpentier and Vidocq into a dangerous search into the secrets of the murdered royal family--and entertain the thought that Louis-Charles, the son of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette, and who was imprisoned for many long months, might still be alive.

I'm always skeptical of historical fiction that's written in the first person--but surprisingly, Louis Bayard manages to make it work in this book. The Parisian underworld is sufficiently creepy, and Carpentier, plays a perfect (albeit watered-down) Dr. Watson to Vidocq's Sherlock Holmes. I just loved inspector Vidocq, for his razor-sharp wit and ability to transform into another character through disguise. He's arrogant and cocky, but very sure of his abilities as an investigator (and not afraid to strut like a peacock when someone compliments him)!

There's a hefty amount of political intrigue and espionage in this novel, made even juicier by the idea that the son of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette might have still been alive in 1818, long after a time period which everyone wished to forget. The novel is well-written; not a word is wasted here. It's a fast-paced and utterly convincing novel.

12 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good for mystery or suspense fans, Francophiles, and monarchists, July 21, 2008

By	Andrew S. Rogers (Seattle, Washington) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

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The treatment of the children of King Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette by the French state following the murder of their parents must rank very high among the great things achieved in the name of egalitarianism. Certainly, not until the October Revolution of 1918 did anything really approach that level of Procrustean glory. But then, the Reds - like the Browns in Germany a decade or so later - were always attentive students and heirs of the French Revolution.

In "The Black Tower," author Louis Bayard takes us to the unfamiliar (for most American readers, I'd imagine) days of the Restoration, and presents us with not only a restoration but even - could it be? - a resurrection? That's what confronts the policeman Vidocq and his more-than-a-little reluctant Watson, Hector Carpentier, when signs, including a rising toll of dead bodies, begin to suggest that the child king Louis XVII is not dead after all, but alive and somewhere in France.

I wasn't familiar with Louis Bayard when I requested this title (given the name and subject, I assumed the author was French), but I am impressed by what he achieves in "The Black Tower." A number of pretty interesting characters come together in a setting that is politically, culturally, and geographically complex. The plot has the requisite number of twists and turns before the end - some relatively foreseeable, others less so - along with a good mix of violence, drama, and suspense. One of the blurb-writers on the back cover uses the word "unsentimental" to describe Bayard's prose in an earlier work, and I'd use the same here. I would have liked to feel a stronger emotional connection to our narrator (he feels somewhat too rational, too emotionally insulated from the reader ... which is perhaps to be expected in times like the ones he's living through, but I would have liked a bigger peek behind the veil), but I admired the way Bayard had the character evolve from one end of the novel to the other. The writing as a whole is spare and intense, with characterization being revealed in action, not explication.

Reading this on a vacation weekend was a rewarding way to spend a few days. I cannot guarantee Louis Bayard will make it to my brief list of "mystery authors whose next book I'm anxiously awaiting," but I do think he deserves the accolades he's apparently been receiving. I'll have to give his other titles a try, because this one was a fine introduction.