In the Shadows of Paris: A Victor Legris Mystery

by Claude Izner

Overview

In In the Shadows of Paris, the fifth installment in this c'est magnifique Victor Legris series by Claude Izner, a murderer is at large in belle-epoque Paris.

In the turbulent Parisian summer of 1893,Victor Legris has vowed to his fiancée to give up the dangerous hobby of amateur sleuthing to concentrate on selling books.

But a killer is at large, leaving mysterious references to a leopard in his notes, and intent on revenge for events that took place many years before during the Commune. When a bookbinder friend of Victor's dies in a house fire that does not seem to be accidental, the young bookseller feels impelled to resume his detective work and uncover the identity of the Batignolles predator. Alongside his trusty assistant Jojo, Victor embarks on a new investigation in the bourgeois quarters of Paris, where scoundrels abound and streethawkers call out their wares among market stalls, under the bloody shadow of the Commune.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781250031310
Publisher:	St. Martin's Publishing Group
Publication date:	07/23/2013
Series:	Victor Legris Mysteries , #5
Edition description:	First Edition
Pages:	320
Product dimensions:	5.68(w) x 8.06(h) x 0.89(d)

About the Author

CLAUDE IZNER is the pseudonym of two sisters, Liliane Korb and Laurence Lefevre. Both are second-hand booksellers on the banks of the Seine and experts on nineteenth century Paris.

Editorial Reviews

An especially crafty solution distinguishes the fifth belle epoque whodunit...Not many readers will identify the murderer before Legris, whose quirky and endearing character is even more developed than in previous books.” —Publishers Weekly

“...a fin de siecle delight. The Montmartre Investigation is...another first-rate escapist pleasure... charming, witty and beautifully evocative.” —BookGeeks

“Izner combines a sparkling puzzle (reminiscent of one of Agatha Christie's most famous novels) with complex characters and appealing descriptions of Paris, and Murder on the Eiffel Tower is a well-executed beginning to a series with great potential.” —The Richmond Times Dispatch

“An extremely satisfying traditional mystery with lots of suspects and panache. Izner writes in a witty, breezy style, which conjures up the Paris of 1889 and the huge sprawl of the exhibition. The plot is terrific, and who can't enjoy another good time in the City of Light...” —Providence Journal-Bulletin

“Fans of quality historical will welcome Izner's debut. The taut pacing and vivid period detail will have readers eagerly turning the pages.” —Publishers Weekly

“...the energetic curiosity of the hero dovetails nicely with the readers' interest in a fascianting era. The colorful supporting cast lays a solid foundation for Victor's further exploits.” —Kirkus Reviews

“Reading Izner is like taking a ride into the belle epoque in a time machine. A wonderfully breathtaking ride.” —Boris Akunin, author of The Winter Queen, The Turkish Gambit, and Sister Pelagia and the White Bulldog

“I read this charming, evocative, and suspenseful book with the mounting excitement I always get when I realize I've found a new series—-I can't wait for the next Victor Legris book. What a pleasure it is to visit Paris with such an expert tour guide!” —Charles Finch, author of A Beautiful Blue Death and The September Society

“A book of great charm—-full of delightful historical detail—-and deftly written.” —Frank Tallis, author of A Death in Vienna and Vienna Blood

“[A] clock-beating thriller . . . entertaining views of nineteenth-century Paris.” —Financial Times (UK)

“...a charming and amusing whirl around a time of rapid social an intellectual change.” —The Morning Star

From the Publisher

An especially crafty solution distinguishes the fifth belle epoque whodunit from the two sisters using the Izner pseudonym (after 2011’s The Assassin in the Marais). After a daring daytime robbery of a jewelry store, carried out with the unwitting assistance of a gendarme, Paris is hit by a violent crime wave. Two murders—one of the founder of Paris’s natural history museum, the other of a painter of enamels—attract the attention of bookseller Victor Legris. His curiosity becomes more than casual after a bookbinder friend, Pierre Andresy, perishes in a fire in his store amid evidence that arson was involved. Bizarrely, a death notice in the paper for Andresy was placed before his death and contains language similar to that on a note found on the painter’s corpse. Not many readers will identify the murderer before Legris, whose quirky and endearing character is even more developed than in previous books. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly

Victor, a bookseller and amateur sleuth, cannot help but investigate when a bookbinder friend dies in his fifth outing (after The Assassin in the Marais) in 1890s Paris.

Library Journal

The murder of a friend propels a Parisian bookseller once more out of his store and into the streets to investigate. The summer of 1893 is hot and Parisian tempers short. As is their habit, Victor Legris and his assistant, Joseph Pignot, work busily in Legris' bookshop while discussing various items in the newspapers: today, an odd jewelry store robbery in which only some smoking supplies were taken. Could this theft be related to two more serious crimes that follow, the fatal stabbing of enamellist Léopold Grandjean and the death of bookbinder Pierre Andrésy in a raging fire at his shop? Both Victor and Joseph, who knew Andrésy well, are shaken by the killing. So, despite his promise to his fiancee, Tasha, to give up his amateur sleuthing, Victor feels compelled to investigate. In the uproar surrounding Andrésy's death (political motives are suspected) and Grandjean's unsolved murder (the police investigation is tracked almost daily in the press), little attention is paid to the discovery of the remains of Guy de la Brosse, founder of the city's natural history museum, in an abandoned cellar. When Joseph reads a funeral notice for Andrésy in Le Figaro that predates the killing, it's confirmation of first-degree murder. A Victor Hugo poem is one of several pieces of period art woven into the mystery's clever solution. Psudonymous Izner's fifth Legris whodunit (The Assassin in the Marais, 2011, etc.) bubbles charmingly along courtesy of lively banter and larger-than-life Parisian characters.

Kirkus Reviews