Picking up directly after The Pale Assassin (2009), this French Revolution thriller includes intrigue, romance and plenty of blood but takes a while to pick up steam.
Displaced aristocrat Eugénie and friend Julien have fled Paris for Eugénie’s rebel-minded cousin Hetta’s house on the English coast. Eugénie can’t return to France because of a fraudulent but binding marriage engagement to Le Fantôme, a Phantom of the Opera/Javert figure with high government ranking and a vast spy network. Eugénie’s brother Armand languishes in Paris prisons awaiting the corrupt trial that will send him to the guillotine for being a royalist and aristo. Le Fantôme’s debonair, sociopathic thug, Guy, tracks Eugénie, Hetta and Julien with disconcerting expertise. However, despite the constant threat of rape, murder and kidnapping, momentum lags for the first 200 pages. Readers know every danger and secret all along; narrative perspective shifts from character to character too quickly to catch hold. When Eugénie and Hetta end up accidentally back in Paris, the plot quickens. The city seethes with bitter fury and revenge-based executions. Romantic connections get befuddled through naivete, and the main characters’ tricky final escapades, while not quite believable, are as exciting and gruesomely successful as befits the Revolutionary setting. Political passion and upheaval are mainly backdrop; if readers loyal to the four main players can stay the course, they’ll like the ending. (cast of historical and fictional characters, timeline, afterward) (Historical thriller. 14 & up)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-8234-2361-3
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Holiday House
Review Posted Online: Aug. 16, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2011
A carefully researched, precisely written tour de force; unforgettable and wrenching.
Breaking away from Arthurian legends (The Winter Prince, 1993, etc.), Wein delivers a heartbreaking tale of friendship during World War II.
In a cell in Nazi-occupied France, a young woman writes. Like Scheherezade, to whom she is compared by the SS officer in charge of her case, she dribbles out information—“everything I can remember about the British War Effort”—in exchange for time and a reprieve from torture. But her story is more than a listing of wireless codes or aircraft types. Instead, she describes her friendship with Maddie, the pilot who flew them to France, as well as the real details of the British War Effort: the breaking down of class barriers, the opportunities, the fears and victories not only of war, but of daily life. She also describes, almost casually, her unbearable current situation and the SS officer who holds her life in his hands and his beleaguered female associate, who translates the narrative each day. Through the layers of story, characters (including the Nazis) spring to life. And as the epigraph makes clear, there is more to this tale than is immediately apparent. The twists will lead readers to finish the last page and turn back to the beginning to see how the pieces slot perfectly, unexpectedly into place.
A carefully researched, precisely written tour de force; unforgettable and wrenching. (Historical fiction. 14 & up)Pub Date: May 15, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-4231-5219-4
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Hyperion
Review Posted Online: Feb. 14, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2012
PROFILES
PROFILES
A rousing series opener.
In Victorian London, a girl with an unknown past embarks on a mission that will change her future.
Iris has spent the last 10 years hiding out in the circus, performing as an African tightrope dancer—a so-called “Nubian Princess”—with no memories of her old life. One day, a mysterious stranger in the crowd triggers something long forgotten, causing her to publicly reveal her ability to recover from seemingly fatal accidents. Now her secret has been revealed, she is forced to flee, and she agrees to assist the stranger, a White man called Adam Temple, with finding his father and unlocking the mystery that will end the world. She also will fight as his champion in the Tournament of Freak, a contest to decide which Enlightenment Committee member will wield the power to reshape the new world. Adam, for his part, promises to help her unlock her past and potential. Iris—along with her brooding Turkish tightrope partner, Jinn, and brash Salvadoran tournament newcomer Max—must discover the truth and fight to the finish on behalf of the rich and powerful alongside other supernaturally gifted champions. This cryptic, enticing journey is told in alternating, third-person perspectives: Adam’s cold and calculating, Iris’ searching and daring. The author builds a delicious tension that will have readers putting the pieces together as the end of the world nears and wanting more after they reach the climactic cliffhanger ending.
A rousing series opener. (Historical fantasy. 14-18)Pub Date: Sept. 7, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-5344-5356-2
Page Count: 496
Publisher: McElderry
Review Posted Online: June 23, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2021
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