- Hardcover: 304 pages
- Publisher: Minotaur Books,US; 1 edition (31 July 2009)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0312379889
- ISBN-13: 978-0312379889
- Product Dimensions: 21.8 x 16 x 2.7 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 820,269 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Review
"Combines the best in history and mystery." - The Historical Novels Review"
Product Description
A murdered man is found in a Parisian cemetery in 1786, where struggling writer Aristide Ravel recognizes the strange symbols surrounding the body to be Masonic.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
Format:Hardcover
First Sentence: Aristide Ravel stumbled upon the first fire early on All Hallows' Eve.
Aristide Revel is a penniless writer who never expects to come across the body of a man lying in the snow of a graveyard with his throat slit and the body marked with Masonic symbols. Police inspector Brasseur, Revel's former neighbor, quickly recognizes that he is not a suspect in the killing, but quickly makes Revel a subinspector to help solve the crime.
Although this is the most recent book in the series, it is a prequel to the others so it made sense to read it first.
I appreciated Alleyn's skill at providing a strong sense of place and time. She takes us from grand mansions to inside the Bastille. Set just prior to the French Revolution, it provides insight into the political unrest of the period. It was also interesting to gain a perspective as to why the French supported the Americans during our Revolution.
Alleyn's skill at creating interesting characters is just as well done. She adroitly combines the fictional with the real with interactions which made sense. I found Ravel to be a character I want to follow. His personal history places his somewhat on the outside yet his intelligence and ability to reason make him make me think of a much more dimensional Holmes-type character. I particularly appreciated the scene where he uncovers the betrayal of one he thought to be his friend. I also appreciate that Alleyn did not follow a stereotypical path when dealing with another possible relationship.
The plot was very well done with interesting and unexpected details and a very good unanticipated ending. The period of the French Revolution is one I do not usually enjoy. I can't explain why I find it unpleasant, but I usually avoid books set during that time.
Ms. Alleyn has become an exception and now has a place on my buy list. I am delighted to know I've the other two books waiting for me on my TBR shelves.
THE CAVALIER OF THE APOCALYPSE (Hist. Mys-Aristide Ravel-France-Georgian/1786) - VG
Alleyn, Susanne - 3rd in series
Minotaur Books, 2009, US Hardcover - ISBN: 9780312379889
Aristide Revel is a penniless writer who never expects to come across the body of a man lying in the snow of a graveyard with his throat slit and the body marked with Masonic symbols. Police inspector Brasseur, Revel's former neighbor, quickly recognizes that he is not a suspect in the killing, but quickly makes Revel a subinspector to help solve the crime.
Although this is the most recent book in the series, it is a prequel to the others so it made sense to read it first.
I appreciated Alleyn's skill at providing a strong sense of place and time. She takes us from grand mansions to inside the Bastille. Set just prior to the French Revolution, it provides insight into the political unrest of the period. It was also interesting to gain a perspective as to why the French supported the Americans during our Revolution.
Alleyn's skill at creating interesting characters is just as well done. She adroitly combines the fictional with the real with interactions which made sense. I found Ravel to be a character I want to follow. His personal history places his somewhat on the outside yet his intelligence and ability to reason make him make me think of a much more dimensional Holmes-type character. I particularly appreciated the scene where he uncovers the betrayal of one he thought to be his friend. I also appreciate that Alleyn did not follow a stereotypical path when dealing with another possible relationship.
The plot was very well done with interesting and unexpected details and a very good unanticipated ending. The period of the French Revolution is one I do not usually enjoy. I can't explain why I find it unpleasant, but I usually avoid books set during that time.
Ms. Alleyn has become an exception and now has a place on my buy list. I am delighted to know I've the other two books waiting for me on my TBR shelves.
THE CAVALIER OF THE APOCALYPSE (Hist. Mys-Aristide Ravel-France-Georgian/1786) - VG
Alleyn, Susanne - 3rd in series
Minotaur Books, 2009, US Hardcover - ISBN: 9780312379889
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
7 reviews
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
a wholly exhilarating read
14 Aug 2009
Format:Hardcover
What a pleasure to read this marvelous book! What dismay to have it end.... and with a twist that stuns the reader's brain. Who could've killed poor Saint Landry, who? I asked as I crept through the streets of 18th century Paris. But Susanne Alleyn, in her infinite creativity, comes up with the perfect assailant. Well, no more about that intriguing killer--I won't be a spoiler. I'll just say that all of Alleyn's characters are beautifully imagined and true to their era: Aristide, in particular, with his traumatic past--and troubled present.
I won't reiterate the plot: you can read the starred review in PW. But I do want to offer what I like about this novel--aside from the fact that I'm in love with this period of history, and with the French enlightenment and pre-revolutionary period, and oh--with Paris itself. I do love the way Aristide skulks into the sleasy, smoky, noisy literary cafes, and sludges through the scary, winding streets. I love the cemeteries--their stinks and slimes, not to mention a dead body with its throat slit and skin tatooed (so to speak)with eerie symbols. I love the way the author wholly focuses on the mystery, with no extraneous subplots: we shadow the bumbling, engaging Aristide (who just wants to be a scribbler of seditious pamphlets--not a sleuth) every surprising minute of the way. A few cul-de-sacs, yes, into interesting backstory, along with an bit of unrequited love story; but mostly the novel speeds inexorably toward its end: a solution to the crime. Alleyn doesn't let us put the book down! I'm exhausted, but exhilarated.
Oh, and I'm highly intrigued with the occasional real historical person our antihero meets along the way: the Duc d'Orleans, who wants to replace the ineffectual Lous XVI, and most fascinating of all, the mad scientist Honore Fragonard and his astonishing Cavalier of the Apocalypse. A brilliant addition, to be sure! A terrific title. A terrific novel!... And finally, I love the way the author didn't jolt our bones in a rush of hurtling carriages and fiacres in the obligatory thriller-type climax, but rather in a neat, shocking turn of events, a moment of horror, and then, sigh, the heart-piercing End. Ah-hhhh. PLEASE, please SUBMIT!
I won't reiterate the plot: you can read the starred review in PW. But I do want to offer what I like about this novel--aside from the fact that I'm in love with this period of history, and with the French enlightenment and pre-revolutionary period, and oh--with Paris itself. I do love the way Aristide skulks into the sleasy, smoky, noisy literary cafes, and sludges through the scary, winding streets. I love the cemeteries--their stinks and slimes, not to mention a dead body with its throat slit and skin tatooed (so to speak)with eerie symbols. I love the way the author wholly focuses on the mystery, with no extraneous subplots: we shadow the bumbling, engaging Aristide (who just wants to be a scribbler of seditious pamphlets--not a sleuth) every surprising minute of the way. A few cul-de-sacs, yes, into interesting backstory, along with an bit of unrequited love story; but mostly the novel speeds inexorably toward its end: a solution to the crime. Alleyn doesn't let us put the book down! I'm exhausted, but exhilarated.
Oh, and I'm highly intrigued with the occasional real historical person our antihero meets along the way: the Duc d'Orleans, who wants to replace the ineffectual Lous XVI, and most fascinating of all, the mad scientist Honore Fragonard and his astonishing Cavalier of the Apocalypse. A brilliant addition, to be sure! A terrific title. A terrific novel!... And finally, I love the way the author didn't jolt our bones in a rush of hurtling carriages and fiacres in the obligatory thriller-type climax, but rather in a neat, shocking turn of events, a moment of horror, and then, sigh, the heart-piercing End. Ah-hhhh. PLEASE, please SUBMIT!
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Start with the prequel...
4 Jan 2010
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
First Sentence: Aristide Ravel stumbled upon the first fire early on All Hallows' Eve.
Aristide Revel is a penniless writer who never expects to come across the body of a man lying in the snow of a graveyard with his throat slit and the body marked with Masonic symbols. Police inspector Brasseur, Revel's former neighbor, quickly recognizes that he is not a suspect in the killing, but quickly makes Revel a subinspector to help solve the crime.
Although this is the most recent book in the series, it is a prequel to the others so it made sense to read it first.
I appreciated Alleyn's skill at providing a strong sense of place and time. She takes us from grand mansions to inside the Bastille. Set just prior to the French Revolution, it provides insight into the political unrest of the period. It was also interesting to gain a perspective as to why the French supported the Americans during our Revolution.
Alleyn's skill at creating interesting characters is just as well done. She adroitly combines the fictional with the real with interactions which made sense. I found Ravel to be a character I want to follow. His personal history places his somewhat on the outside yet his intelligence and ability to reason make him make me think of a much more dimensional Holmes-type character. I particularly appreciated the scene where he uncovers the betrayal of one he thought to be his friend. I also appreciate that Alleyn did not follow a stereotypical path when dealing with another possible relationship.
The plot was very well done with interesting and unexpected details and a very good unanticipated ending. The period of the French Revolution is one I do not usually enjoy. I can't explain why I find it unpleasant, but I usually avoid books set during that time.
Ms. Alleyn has become an exception and now has a place on my buy list. I am delighted to know I've the other two books waiting for me on my TBR shelves.
THE CAVALIER OF THE APOCALYPSE (Hist. Mys-Aristide Ravel-France-Georgian/1786) - VG
Alleyn, Susanne - 3rd in series
Minotaur Books, 2009, US Hardcover - ISBN: 9780312379889
Aristide Revel is a penniless writer who never expects to come across the body of a man lying in the snow of a graveyard with his throat slit and the body marked with Masonic symbols. Police inspector Brasseur, Revel's former neighbor, quickly recognizes that he is not a suspect in the killing, but quickly makes Revel a subinspector to help solve the crime.
Although this is the most recent book in the series, it is a prequel to the others so it made sense to read it first.
I appreciated Alleyn's skill at providing a strong sense of place and time. She takes us from grand mansions to inside the Bastille. Set just prior to the French Revolution, it provides insight into the political unrest of the period. It was also interesting to gain a perspective as to why the French supported the Americans during our Revolution.
Alleyn's skill at creating interesting characters is just as well done. She adroitly combines the fictional with the real with interactions which made sense. I found Ravel to be a character I want to follow. His personal history places his somewhat on the outside yet his intelligence and ability to reason make him make me think of a much more dimensional Holmes-type character. I particularly appreciated the scene where he uncovers the betrayal of one he thought to be his friend. I also appreciate that Alleyn did not follow a stereotypical path when dealing with another possible relationship.
The plot was very well done with interesting and unexpected details and a very good unanticipated ending. The period of the French Revolution is one I do not usually enjoy. I can't explain why I find it unpleasant, but I usually avoid books set during that time.
Ms. Alleyn has become an exception and now has a place on my buy list. I am delighted to know I've the other two books waiting for me on my TBR shelves.
THE CAVALIER OF THE APOCALYPSE (Hist. Mys-Aristide Ravel-France-Georgian/1786) - VG
Alleyn, Susanne - 3rd in series
Minotaur Books, 2009, US Hardcover - ISBN: 9780312379889
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Historical Mystery
4 Sep 2009
Format:Hardcover
The Cavalier of the Apocalypse is a prequel explaining how series hero Aristide Ravel, a young and impoverished writer in Paris, France, becomes a detective. In 1786, Ravel runs into an old schoolmate, the wealthy Olivier Derville, who introduces Ravel to a printer who is interested in manuscripts mocking the royal family and the Church, and Ravel promises three essays on the state of France and what might be done about it. Brasseur, a friendly police inspector, saves him from losing the down payment to a cut-purse on the way home. When Brasseur finds a murdered man marked with strange symbols in a churchyard, he asks Ravel for help interpreting the symbols. Impressed by Ravel's natural bent for investigation, he appoints him an unofficial sub-inspector to help identify the murderer. Their investigation leads to a confusing tangle of secret societies, the royal scandal of the queen's diamond necklace, and rumblings of revolution against the court of Louis XVI. Ravel is never sure exactly who he can trust as he follows the thread of evidence through the streets and mansions of Paris, meeting strange historical figures like Honoré Fragonard, an anatomist who created macabre models like The Cavalier of the Apocalypse: a preserved skinless man riding a skinless horse. Excellent details make this fascinating historical period come to life.
http://www.stopyourekillingme.com/A_Authors/Alleyn_Susanne.html
http://www.stopyourekillingme.com/A_Authors/Alleyn_Susanne.html
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