Un crimen que tiene lugar en el mismísimo corazón de París: la catedral de Notre-Dame. Mañana del 16 de agosto, un día después de la fiesta de la Asunción. Notre-Dame de París acaba de abrir sus puertas a los numerosos visitantes que acuden a ella con fines religiosos o turísticos. Una joven de belleza deslumbrante e indumentaria poco adecuada para una catedral parece dedicar su entera concentración y devoción a una de las estatuas de la Virgen. El sacristán y el supervisor no dejan de vigilarla. Pero, cuando una turista americana la empuja levemente, su cuerpo se derrumba: está muerta. El comandante Landard y el teniente Gombrowicz, junto con la fiscal adunta Claire Kauffmann, son los encargados de la investigación. Cuando llegan a la escena del crimen, los testigos han desaparecido. La autopsia revela un horrible detalle: que el sexo de la víctima había sido sellado postmortem con cera de cirio, como para reconstruir su virginidad. ¿Quién es la muchacha? ¿Quién cometió el crimen? ¿Fue uno de los fanáticos religiosos obsesionados por la Virgen María que el día anterior partici´po en la tradicional procesión de la Virgen? ¿Fue uno de los miembros del personal, o una de las almas extraviadas que vaga alrededor de la catedral y conoce bien sus rincons.

Entertaining little crime story, set in the crowded, convoluted edifice of my favorite building on earth. The author worked in visitor management at the cathedral, so is happy to show off his knowledge of its private staircases, wings, and chambers most of us will never see. One protagonist, Father Kern, is an ailing little priest, beset by flares of bodily pain that have stunted him since childhood (the medical me is guessing Still's disease?), who sets out to understand who was behind the bizarre death of a pretty young woman dressed in white. The plot is nothing special, with a requisite red herring, and a somewhat predictable villain and conclusion, revealed all at once to the sympathetic young policeman Gombrowicz. Read this one for Paris, for Notre Dame, for Father Kern's earnest travails, for a comfortable evening or two. ( )

Entertaining and suspenseful crime story set in Notre Dame. I loved the characters and was thrilled to find out it's a series. Pere Kern is a great would-be detective and I look forward to more. ( )

There has been a murder in the great cathedral and in its aftermath a great cast of characters is introduced. The suspect, an angelic looking young pervert; Clair, a young deputy magistrate haunted by memory; a bad cop and his good cop colleague; a homeless drunk Pole; and a host more. I'm glad to see this is a series as Père Kern is both engaging and ill so it's good to see that he will have another adventure.

My copy from my subscription to New Vessel Press. ( )

4.5 stars

I don't really know why I liked The Madonna of Notre Dame, by Alexis Ragougneau, as much as I did. On its face, it is a short murder mystery, written well (but not spectacularly so) and featuring as its protagonist priest-turned-amateur-detective Father François Kern, one of several priests who serve at Paris's famed Cathedral of Notre Dame. Been done, you say, and of course library shelves abound with such men, although they are usually found in England. Father Kern is neither particularly clever (I identified the killer long before he did, although the motivation was a bit of a surprise) nor particularly smart (he could have easily avoided a dangerous encounter with the murderer if he had just thought about the situation for 30 seconds). He has no police sidekick à la James Runcie's vicar Sidney Chambers and Detective Inspector Geordie Keating, and Notre Dame isn't even "his" church in the sense that Sidney Chambers presides over Grantchester or Reverend Nick Lawrence oversees Lakehurst.

I think this last point may reveal what is special about Father Kern and The Madonna of Notre Dame. Father Kern isn't "important"; he is simply one of the many players in the pageant which is Notre Dame. While he ultimately solves the mystery, many others play significant roles, including a security guard, the sacristan, and even a couple of regular visitors to the cathedral. It is this sense of the drama of little people's lives playing out against the grandeur of a national treasure which paints Father Kern in such stark relief and gives this stunted, pain-ridden man such presence on the page.

This review was based on a free ARC provided by the publisher. ( )