I’m the sort of person who reads forewords, after words, dedication pages and occasionally indices. So when I started this and read what essentially looks like a book curse, my curiosity was immediately piqued.
Right away, we are confronted with a strong female character, although the novel doesn’t play much on her gender. Aside from having to smack the straying hands of men with a hammer, no one objects to the role she takes as an inspector of buildings under construction.
The dialogue is crisp, as is the imagery of a city under moonlight. The light is an important part of this tale. Catrin sees very clearly under it, even when her vision—splinters oddly, showing her a violent death that at first she thinks is her own. When she discovers that she’s alive and well, the enigma of her vision is replaced by actuality.
The story proceeds apace, with the action taking a turn for the macabre in the second chapter. The author accompanies the aftermath of a grisly murder with thunder and lightning, a Sturm und Drang display that is fittingly appropriate.
The author has a firm grasp of drama, playing up the tension without lingering on the ghastliness of the body. Instead, we focus on the people who gather after the alarm is raised, the shaken Catrin, an insolent, angry madame of a whorehouse and the king’s arbiter of justice come to find the culprit and restore order.
There are mysteries and oddities afoot. The comte’s sons and daughter are dragged into the mess and the young Simon tagging along with him has a bizarre skill that makes him useful, even as he resents being used. Catrin herself appears to have hidden depths since she seems to hear the dead…or is it something else?
This novel grips you in its first opening chapters and I suspect that ensuing mystery will be just as engrossing as the characters surrounding it.
Right away, we are confronted with a strong female character, although the novel doesn’t play much on her gender. Aside from having to smack the straying hands of men with a hammer, no one objects to the role she takes as an inspector of buildings under construction.
The dialogue is crisp, as is the imagery of a city under moonlight. The light is an important part of this tale. Catrin sees very clearly under it, even when her vision—splinters oddly, showing her a violent death that at first she thinks is her own. When she discovers that she’s alive and well, the enigma of her vision is replaced by actuality.
The story proceeds apace, with the action taking a turn for the macabre in the second chapter. The author accompanies the aftermath of a grisly murder with thunder and lightning, a Sturm und Drang display that is fittingly appropriate.
The author has a firm grasp of drama, playing up the tension without lingering on the ghastliness of the body. Instead, we focus on the people who gather after the alarm is raised, the shaken Catrin, an insolent, angry madame of a whorehouse and the king’s arbiter of justice come to find the culprit and restore order.
There are mysteries and oddities afoot. The comte’s sons and daughter are dragged into the mess and the young Simon tagging along with him has a bizarre skill that makes him useful, even as he resents being used. Catrin herself appears to have hidden depths since she seems to hear the dead…or is it something else?
This novel grips you in its first opening chapters and I suspect that ensuing mystery will be just as engrossing as the characters surrounding it.