The Phantom of Rue Royale
(Nicolas Le Floch 3)
Jean-François Parot; Howard Curtis
(translator)
Gallic, Oct 7 2014, $15.95
www.gallicbooks.com
ISBN 9781906040154
In 1770 Parisians celebrate at Rue Royale the Dauphin’s soon to be
wedding. Watching the fireworks gala
from nearby Place Louis XV is Châtelet Police
Commissioner Nicolas Le Floch as a civilian.
The King rejected his superior Lieutenant General of Police Sartine’s
request to work crowd control in order to avoid repeating the disaster that
occurred at his Majesty’s wedding festivities in 1747.
When Monsieur Ruggieri’s pyrotechnic launches causes an out of
control inferno, the crowd panics. Over
a thousand people die with the city outraged by the disaster. Le Floch finds one victim’s death seemingly
different from all the others who died from the fire or the crush to escape the
blaze. This twentyish pregnant female
had neck bruising that occurs when someone is strangled. He wants to investigate the homicide, but
understanding police politics especially during a Royal calamity, Le Floch does
so under the guise of an inquiry looking into the entire tragedy.
The third Nicolas Le Floch French historical police procedural
(see The Châtelet
Apprentice and The Man with the Lead
Stomach) is a great entry due to Jean-François Parot’s skill in transporting armchair readers to Paris two
decades before the Revolution. The
whodunit is terrific, but it is the deep look into 1770 French society that
makes this novel tres magnifique.
Harriet Klausner
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