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The Cavalier of the Apocalypse

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What a pleasure to read this marvelous book! What dismay to have it end.... and with a twist that stuns the reader's brain. Who could've killed poor Saint Landry, who? I asked as I crept through the streets of 18th century Paris. But Susanne Alleyn, in her infinite creativity, comes up with the perfect assailant. Well, no more about that intriguing killer--I won't be a spoiler. I'll just say that all of Alleyn's characters are beautifully imagined and true to their era: Aristide, in particular, with his traumatic past--and troubled present.
I won't reiterate the plot: you can read the starred review in PW. But I do want to offer what I like about this novel--aside from the fact that I'm in love with this period of history, and with the French enlightenment and pre-revolutionary period, and oh--with Paris itself. I do love the way Aristide skulks into the sleasy, smoky, noisy literary cafes, and sludges through the scary, winding streets. I love the cemeteries--their stinks and slimes, not to mention a dead body with its throat slit and skin tatooed (so to speak)with eerie symbols. I love the way the author wholly focuses on the mystery, with no extraneous subplots: we shadow the bumbling, engaging Aristide (who just wants to be a scribbler of seditious pamphlets--not a sleuth) every surprising minute of the way. A few cul-de-sacs, yes, into interesting backstory, along with an bit of unrequited love story; but mostly the novel speeds inexorably toward its end: a solution to the crime. Alleyn doesn't let us put the book down! I'm exhausted, but exhilarated.
Oh, and I'm highly intrigued with the occasional real historical person our antihero meets along the way: the Duc d'Orleans, who wants to replace the ineffectual Lous XVI, and most fascinating of all, the mad scientist Honore Fragonard and his astonishing Cavalier of the Apocalypse. A brilliant addition, to be sure! A terrific title. A terrific novel!... And finally, I love the way the author didn't jolt our bones in a rush of hurtling carriages and fiacres in the obligatory thriller-type climax, but rather in a neat, shocking turn of events, a moment of horror, and then, sigh, the heart-piercing End. Ah-hhhh. PLEASE, please SUBMIT!

First Sentence: Aristide Ravel stumbled upon the first fire early on All Hallows' Eve.

Aristide Revel is a penniless writer who never expects to come across the body of a man lying in the snow of a graveyard with his throat slit and the body marked with Masonic symbols. Police inspector Brasseur, Revel's former neighbor, quickly recognizes that he is not a suspect in the killing, but quickly makes Revel a subinspector to help solve the crime.

Although this is the most recent book in the series, it is a prequel to the others so it made sense to read it first.

I appreciated Alleyn's skill at providing a strong sense of place and time. She takes us from grand mansions to inside the Bastille. Set just prior to the French Revolution, it provides insight into the political unrest of the period. It was also interesting to gain a perspective as to why the French supported the Americans during our Revolution.

Alleyn's skill at creating interesting characters is just as well done. She adroitly combines the fictional with the real with interactions which made sense. I found Ravel to be a character I want to follow. His personal history places his somewhat on the outside yet his intelligence and ability to reason make him make me think of a much more dimensional Holmes-type character. I particularly appreciated the scene where he uncovers the betrayal of one he thought to be his friend. I also appreciate that Alleyn did not follow a stereotypical path when dealing with another possible relationship.

The plot was very well done with interesting and unexpected details and a very good unanticipated ending. The period of the French Revolution is one I do not usually enjoy. I can't explain why I find it unpleasant, but I usually avoid books set during that time.

Ms. Alleyn has become an exception and now has a place on my buy list. I am delighted to know I've the other two books waiting for me on my TBR shelves.

THE CAVALIER OF THE APOCALYPSE (Hist. Mys-Aristide Ravel-France-Georgian/1786) - VG
Alleyn, Susanne - 3rd in series
Minotaur Books, 2009, US Hardcover - ISBN: 9780312379889

Probably the most interesting character in this elaborately named novel is pre-Revolutionary Paris, unrest pervasive in a city bedeviled by poverty, the French king and his court oblivious to the complaints of the people. Aristide Ravel is not unaware of such daily battles, an aspiring man of letters in a threadbare suit. Chancing upon a number of fires set randomly throughout the city, Aristide is too concerned with daily survival to indulge his curiosity until recruited by a police inspector. When an identified body of a man is discovered in a Parisian cemetery, Ravel is approached by Inspector Brasseau. The man's throat is slit, various symbols of Freemasonry carved on his torso. Once the inspector determines Ravel is not the murderer, he cajoles Aristide with promises of remuneration, requesting his help in learning the identity of the dead man. Thus is Aristide delivered from bystander to participant in an investigation that allows him entry to a part of society usually unavailable to such a man.

With an infamous family history in his past, Ravel prefers to look to the future, surprisingly adept at police work, albeit not as a permanent avocation. Accompanying Inspector Brasseau, Aristide finds himself mixing with the families of the upper class, including a beautiful young woman who finds him agreeably attractive. Yet the underlying theme, the activities of the Freemasons is pervasive, clearly a link to the recent political unrest and the murder, especially when the body of the murdered man goes missing. In a city of extremes, where hungry citizens grumble about an indifferent monarchy and violence simmers just beneath the surface, Aristide is but a witness to great historical events, the country drifting toward revolution, Louis XVI willfully ignorant of his subjects' suffering. While scandal roils around the nobles and an outrageous affair involving a diamond necklace, Ravel concentrates on the missing corpse, the betrayal of those in his most intimate circle and a momentary flirtation with romance above his station in life.

But for all the drama of the era, Ravel's adventures are essentially low-key, the protagonist hardly a compelling character in a tale with a tenuous plot. The novel is strangely passionless for all the chaos: the involvement of Freemasons in the political arena and a murder beset with contradictions. It is though Ravel is peering through a looking glass smudged with fingerprints. This is not his world. The mannered figures of the well-to-do contrasting with the crude urgency of angry commoners, Alleyn opts for the tenor of the era, gentlemanly at all costs, the title more intriguing after all than the story. Luan Gaines/2009.

The Cavalier of the Apocalypse is a prequel explaining how series hero Aristide Ravel, a young and impoverished writer in Paris, France, becomes a detective. In 1786, Ravel runs into an old schoolmate, the wealthy Olivier Derville, who introduces Ravel to a printer who is interested in manuscripts mocking the royal family and the Church, and Ravel promises three essays on the state of France and what might be done about it. Brasseur, a friendly police inspector, saves him from losing the down payment to a cut-purse on the way home. When Brasseur finds a murdered man marked with strange symbols in a churchyard, he asks Ravel for help interpreting the symbols. Impressed by Ravel's natural bent for investigation, he appoints him an unofficial sub-inspector to help identify the murderer. Their investigation leads to a confusing tangle of secret societies, the royal scandal of the queen's diamond necklace, and rumblings of revolution against the court of Louis XVI. Ravel is never sure exactly who he can trust as he follows the thread of evidence through the streets and mansions of Paris, meeting strange historical figures like Honoré Fragonard, an anatomist who created macabre models like The Cavalier of the Apocalypse: a preserved skinless man riding a skinless horse. Excellent details make this fascinating historical period come to life.

http://www.stopyourekillingme.com/A_Authors/Alleyn_Susanne.html

Review: The Cavalier of the Apocalypse

Rating:*****

Susanne Alleyn has written a third riveting, well-plotted mystery starring Aristide Ravel, this one set in Paris shortly before the French Revolution and I think it is definitely the best yet in the series! For you folks who have not yet discovered this talented author, and who like to read a series "from the beginning", you have the rare chance to begin with "The Cavalier..", as it is a prequel to the two prior books featuring Aristide Ravel and gives us a glimpse into how Aristide is induced, reluctantly, to help the police inspector, M. Brasseur investigate and ultimately solve murder amidst the turbulent political unrest and scandals of the time. The earlier two books are set after the Revolution, but the murder at the center of this book, Aristide's first
venture into crime-solving, is fascinatingly and deftly linked to one of the most famous scandals of the time, the Diamond Necklace Affair involving Marie Antoinette, and the brewing discontent of many intelligent men of consequence with overweening, corrupt aristocrats and wretched conditions of the populace.

What I think sets this book above so many historical mysteries is Alleyn's ability to strike just the right balance between historical context and the mystery that drives the plot. Too many times, I've read mysteries of this subgenre in which the story is interrupted by pages and pages of what are simply unrelated dumps of the author's research into the clothing, the food, detailed descriptions of place, etc. that contribute nothing to the mystery and its solution. I think most of us read mysteries because we want to follow that story. Alleyn never includes unrelated social context, even though I learned lots of interesting facts about the period.

She is also very very good at creating characters that ring true and are sympathetic. Aristide, impoverished, often discouraged and suffering from self-doubt, stubborn and proud, is enormously appealing - you can't help rooting for him. Brasseur, for all his wiliness, has his own gruff appeal and sense of honor. The other main characters are well-drawn, whether aristocrat or middle class, along with some unsavory citizens that add spice to the mix.

The story begins with Aristide's encounter with a mysterious church fire, one of a string of such, his meeting with Brasseur and his efforts to find a publisher for his own attempts at writing rather dangerous pamphlets. Then the discovery of a gruesomely murdered man in a cemetery propels Aristide into a fast-moving series of events, increasingly dangerous, as he tries to discern why the man was mutilated, what the strange symbols mean, and what the connections to a missing aristocrat, a powerful Cardinal, and certain secretive societies are. I don't want to give away too much, so I won't tell you any more. Read the book. I was hooked very quickly, and couldn't put it down. Then, if you haven't yet, read the prior two- Game of Patience and A Treasury of Regrets. Let's hope Alleyn has many more adventures for Ravel in store for us!

I recommend this book to all those who love a good mystery, an interesting time and place, and prose so well written that you "fall into the world" of the book without the slightest effort.

Wonderfully atmospheric historical mystery set in Paris during the days leading up to the French Revolution. This is a prequel to Alleyn's first two Aristide Ravel mysteries which were both set after the revolution ("Game of Patience" and "A Treasury of Regrets") and, though I enjoyed the first two, I absolutely loved this one! In fact, I gobbled it up as soon as I got it, and, as soon as I finished, I wanted to read it for the first time all over again.

Alleyn has managed to seamlessly weave together a well-plotted, fascinating mystery, finely drawn characters ~ especially Ravel about whom I have come to care deeply ~ and well-researched historical details that enhanced yet never interfered with the sheer enjoyment of the story.

One thing that stood out for me was how brilliantly she portrayed Paris and its denizens: the aristrocracy with all its arrogance, injustice and excesses, the bourgousie with its rigidly held morals and insatiable desire to be accepted into the good graces of their "betters," and the lower classes with their lives of grinding poverty and lack of basic human rights. I could actually feel tremors of the rage and rebellion fomenting in the background.

The mystery, which was tied to one of the most infamous scandals of that time ~ the Diamond Necklace Affair, a scandal involving Marie Antoinette of "Let them eat cake" fame and a wealthy bishop of the Catholic Church that was one of the links in the chain that brought down the monarchy and the church ~ was excellently done. I also loved the part about the factual cavalier. Fascinating stuff indeed!

But the best part for me is Ravel's story: how Ravel, an impoverished writer with an unsavory background whose highly illegal and inflammatory anti-government essays put him on the wrong side of the law comes to be working with the police as an independent consultant, and what happened to turn him into so dour and discouraged a young man.

All I can say is brava, Ms. Alleyn! And to anyone who loves a ripping good historical mystery, run out and get this one as soon as you can. You won't regret it!

In 1786 Paris Aristide Ravel struggles to earn a living from writing commentaries that criticize the church as corrupt and depraved, and King Louis XVI as feeble. Ravel also warns those in power that a great internal Revolution similar to that across the ocean will occur with much blood flowing.

Ravel finds a murdered corpse wearing a fancy waistcoat that does not conceal the symbols etched on the body; markings of the Masons. His former neighbor when he could afford to eat cake, police inspector Brasseur, names Ravel as his prime suspect, but hires him to solve the homicide just in case someone else did it; if the writer fails, he will arrest him for the crime. Knowing he will be a guest of the Bastille and probably Madame Guillotine, Ravel investigates. Although the body is stolen from the morgue, Ravel finds out who is reported missing and concludes only the Marquis de Beaupreau or Monsieur Lambert Saint-Landry could have owned the waistcoat. Both are Masons. His inquiry leads to revelations about his father that shake him. Ravel keeps digging into the Masonic clues that seem to imply a conspiracy to remove Louis XVI from the throne and a scandal focused on Queen Antoinette and a missing necklace. All this occurs while the sleuth is fascinated by Lambert's spirited sister Sophie.

The police procedural investigation is well written and fun to follow, but what refreshes this brisk historical mystery is the insightful look at the era just before the revolution; as Susanne Alleyn vividly depicts a period of trouble boiling over which the King, his advisors, and the Church do not believe will ignite as the prevalent theory of most of the powerbrokers start from the axiom of "the divine right of the king" and cannot make the paradigm switch. Fans of French revolutionary War whodunits will relish this great prequel that occurs before Ravel's previous starring roles (see the post Revolutionary GAME OF PATIENCE and A TREASURY OF REGRETS).

Harriet Klausner