Lead Review

  • Book: Paris in the Dark
  • Location: Paris
  • Author: Robert Olen Butler

Review Author: tripfiction

Location

Content

Paris in the Dark is an excellent book – as much for the light it shines on WW1 Paris, as for the story line of the mystery Robert writes about. It is 1915 and America has not joined the war because Woodrow Wilson, the President, does not want it to. But that did not stop many a young and idealistic American crossing the Atlantic to see what he or she could do to assist the Allies. They worked in military hospitals as nurses and doctors, and as ambulance drivers ferrying the wounded from the battlefields to Paris. They made a very significant contribution to the war effort. Incidentally, all motorised vehicles were needed for the war effort – so people made their way round Paris in horse drawn taxis (fiacres). The things you learn from TripFiction!

The hero of our story is Christopher Marlowe ‘Kit’ Cobb. Kit is both a reporter for a Chicago newspaper and an undercover American agent. He is ostensibly in Paris to write a story on the ambulance drivers, but is briefed by his intelligence handler on something far more concerning. Bombs are being hand delivered, and exploding, in several parts of Paris. The news is kept under wraps so as not to scare the inhabitants. Suspicion obviously centre on German infiltrators who may have come to the city disguised as refugees from the front. Kit is asked to find out what he can. He gains the confidence of the German exile population in Paris (he is, in fact an American of German origin – and speaks the language). And his ‘day job’ progresses. He is granted permission to travel to the front with the ambulance drivers – oh, and falls in love with Louise, one of the senior nurses. His feelings are reciprocated. So, there are three strands all cleverly interwoven. His work as a reporter covering the ambulance drivers, his infiltration of the German exile population in Paris, and his affair with Louise. You will not be surprised to hear that all three strands come together as the book moves to a thrilling climax…

A conference between the British and French military leaders is arranged in a swish Paris hotel. Kit knows the conference is a target for the bomber, but how will he find the perpetrator in time, and how will he prevent carnage?

Paris in the Dark is well written, with a flowing and easy style. It is cleverly constructed to be of the era it portrays.

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