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Intricate and detailed

January 5th, 2009 Liz C. - Alicia Ashman

Susanne Alleyn has written two books so far in her series set in post-revolutionary France featuring police agent and investigator Aristide Ravel.  In a world turned upside down with “Liberty, Equality, Fraternity” gone bad and with Madame Guillotine waiting around the corner, trust and confidence in one’s fellow citizens is hard to come by. 

In A Game of Patience the investigation into a double murder is complicated by uncertainty as to who the intended victim was and by Ravel’s internal doubts and worries about having sent innocents to their deaths via the guillotine.  In the sequel A Treasury of Regrets, a servant girl is accused of poisoning the master of the house by adding arsenic to his food.  Ravel doesn’t believe that the simple peasant girl was capable of the murder.  The victim, a money lender, was not short of people who did not like him, including in his own family.  Intricate and detailed historical mysteries with an interesting, even compelling detective can be hard to come by but these certainly qualify.

Entry Filed under: Historical Fiction, Mystery