The events in this novel are set shortly after the Marquise de Brinvilliers’s execution for poisoning numerous people. The Marquise’s death was, so the police thought, an end to such horror, yet if anything it was just a vicious prelude to something much worse.

Ms Bowen does a good job here, keeping the reader – or this one at least – engaged from the offset. It helped that the previous book I read was Alexandre Dumas’s biography of the Marquise de Brinvilliers, so it was like reading a sequel.

The author keeps suspense and intrigue high throughout the narrative. Policeman Charles Desgrez makes for a strong main character.

I especially like the occasions when Desgrez’s wife, Solange, partakes in some detective work. She’s not employed by the authorities or anything of that nature. She does this as a favour, or out of love, and the few scenarios that she gets involved with are among the most compelling in the book.

A very good read. ( )

Marjorie Bowen writes a powerful exciting story of life and death in Paris in the time of Louis XIV.
I was given a digital copy of this book by the publisher Endeavour via Netgalley in return for an honest unbiased review. ( )