Susanne Alleyn Game of Patience

Game of Patience

Susanne Alleyn

Dunne, Mar 2006, $23.95, 288 pp.

ISBN 0312343639

In 1796 Paris, undercover police spy, investigator Aristide Ravel and his superior Commissaire Brasseur, investigate the murders of property landlord Jean-Louis Saint-Ange and his former lover, C lie Montereau, in a chic apartment owned by the former. Aristide quickly learns that no one misses Jean-Louis, with many rejoicing at his death because he was a nasty sort blackmailing aristocrat; the blackguard even extorted money from Celie, who was his lover.

An interrogation of C lie's acrimonious friend Rosalie Cl ment leads Aristide to Philippe Aubry, a violent man who allegedly loved the female victims, but he has an airtight alibi. At the same time, to his chagrin, Aristide begins to fall in love with Rosalie, though he has not totally ruled her out as abetting the killer by hiding much of what she knows from him and Brasseur. Aristide keeps digging, as he knows Brasseur plans to send Rosalie on a date with Madame Guillotine.

This is a tremendous post-revolution but pre Napoleon taut French police procedural, starring a hero with a bothered conscience because he knows he sent innocent people to the guillotine. The who-done-it is cleverly devised so that the audience obtains a deep look at 1796 Paris, yet it never slows down the pace of the investigation. Still this tale belongs to Aristide, who believes his past prevents him from a future filled with love, that is if he can figure out who his rancorous beloved protects. Fans will also want to read the delightful homage to Dickens, A FAR BETTER REST.