The Aristide Ravel Mysteries

A series of detective stories tied to the French Revolution? It may sound odd, but Susanne Alleyn makes it work. She’s already written two earlier books (Game of Patience and A Treasury of Regrets) starring Aristide Ravel as her star sleuth. This latest book serves as a prequel, telling the story of the 1786 murder in Paris that first turned Ravel from a writer to a crime solver. The plot brings together everyone from the Masons to the duc d’Orléans, and Francophiles will appreciate the historic detail and rich atmospheric elements that abound.
--The Christian Science Monitor

Set a decade before her previous Aristide Ravel novels, Game of Patience (2006) and A Treasury of Regrets (2007), Alleyn’s latest opens in Paris at the end of 1785 with the first meeting between Aristide, a down-on-his-luck man of letters, and Inspector Brasseur, an encounter that occurs when Aristide steps in to help quell a church fire. Several months later, Brasseur calls on the writer to take a look at some odd symbols found in a churchyard--near the dead body of a man whose throat was slashed. After the corpse is stolen, the only clue to the man’s identity Aristide and Brasseur are left with is his unique coat. The pair is able to narrow the search down to two noblemen, both Freemasons, but finding out which man was the murder victim and which man may be part of the conspiracy to end the other’s life is a real challenge. Alleyn’s third Ravel mystery is an absorbing outing, and fans of the previous two novels will be interested in seeing a pre-Revolution, radical-minded Aristide.
--Booklist

We met police spy Aristide Ravel in 2006 History/​Mystery Club Pick Game of Patience where, in 1796, Ravel, haunted by those he has helped send to the guillotine, investigates the murder of a wealthy extortionist. Next, in A Treasury of Regrets, Ravel works the murder of a servant accused of murdering the family’s patriarch. And now, in a prequel set earlier in 1786, we learn how hack writer Ravel went into police work. Discovering a body in a Paris cemetery, he falls under the eye of Inspector Brasseur, a former neighbor who hires him on, and into a case where a plot to remove Louis XVI from the throne and the strange symbols surrounding the murdered body merge. Can they be Masonic? Things ratchet up when the corpse is stolen from the morgue... Alleyn crafts expert traditional mysteries against formidable, colorful, meticulously rendered backdrops.
-- The Poisoned Pen Bookstore

A murder in 1786 Paris turns a hack writer into a first-rate detective.

Aristide Ravel is struggling to make his bread from his writings, most of which criticize the activities of the corrupt church and weak King whose policies will lead to the horrors of the Revolution. In a cemetery, Ravel stumbles upon a murder that he connects to the Masons by the symbols cut into the body. In better times Ravel lived in the same building as police inspector Brasseur, who sees him now as both a suspect and a resource to solve the crime. When Brasseur presses Ravel into working for the police, the clever writer proves his worth by his observations and his connections to the bourgeoisie. Even though the murdered man’s body is stolen from the morgue, his distinctive waistcoat identifies him as one of two missing men: either the Marquis de Beaupréau or Monsieur Lambert Saint-Landry. Lambert’s beautiful wife Eugénie and his sister Sophie cannot imagine who would murder such an earnest man--although like the Marquis, he is a Mason. Ravel and Brasseur pursue the Masonic connection with help from Ravel’s wealthy friend Derville, whose revelation that Ravel’s father was a convicted murderer imperils Ravel’s romance with lively Sophie. Even so, Ravel’s bitterness does not stop him from pursuing the murderer from the lowest hovels to the palaces of the aristocracy.

An intriguing prequel to Ravel’s revolutionary adventures (A Treasury of Regrets, 2007, etc.) with a nice twist in the denouement.
--Kirkus Reviews

* In this tale set in 1786 Paris where an arsonist is torching churches, writer Aristide Ravel stumbles upon a dead man in a churchyard and is questioned by Inspector Brasseur, his former neighbor and now the policeman who entangles Ravel in murder investigations (as detailed in A Treasury of Regrets). Ravel's father was an infamous murderer and that hidden past haunts and shapes his life in damaging ways. VERDICT: Known for her impeccable plotting and fully defined characters, Alleyn maintains her high standards here.
--Library Journal (starred review)

Online Reviews

At ILoveaMystery.com:
It's pre-Revolutionary Paris, and a young man is found with his throat slashed and his corpse desecrated with bizarre symbols cut into its flesh. It is a quirk of Fate that draws young Aristide Ravel into the police investigation. A writer of political satire and illegal and treasonable tracts, Ravel, days earlier, had several chance encounters with a former neighbor, Police Inspector Brasseur. Fires had been set and desecrations performed at churches and graveyards, and the two men had met and chatted as the messes were cleaned up. Asked by Brasseur to check out the corpse, Ravel identifies the symbols as Masonic, and unintentionally impresses Brasseur with his breadth of knowledge and analytical skills. Much to his surprise, Ravel finds that he is drawn into the investigation of identifying the corpse and, eventually, seeking the killer. Ravel makes an unlikely police subinspector/informant, although the wages offered are tempting, as his earnings from authorship are meager at best. But most enticing is the opportunity to get better acquainted with Sophie Saint-Landry, half-sister to a missing gentleman who may well be the victim. The investigation takes a decided turn for the worse when the corpse disappears, and the only potential source of identification is a stylish vest which may have been created by one of the modish and snobbish tailors catering to the elite. A fascinating whodunit set in an interesting historical period and filled with the cutthroat politics of the time, Alleyn has created an engaging character who could function well in any society (or at its fringe) and who always has his observant and jaundiced eye well focused on the details of life around him. A prequel to two other Ravel adventures, this is a series well worth the time. RECOMMENDED.

At ArmchairInterviews.com:
This book is a prequel to two previous Aristide Ravel mystery novels, A Treasury of Regrets and Game of Patience. Ravel, a young struggling “man of letters” in Paris in 1786, comes across a fire set in a church and helps to put it out, later encountering Inspector Brasseur as they muse about the origins and reasons for the fire… and Ravel impresses Brasseur with his analytical mind.

When Brasseur is stumped by an unusual murder in a cemetery involving possible Masonic symbols, a fire, a victim with a slit throat, and arranged bones, he calls on Ravel for help. The two follow the trail of an unusual silk waistcoat, identifying two possible victims, both missing--and then the nearly identified body is stolen from the morgue. Most unusual!

Ravel uses his contacts to investigate the Masons, and the family of the unremarkable murdered man, Saint-Landry, along with Saint-Landry’s missing friend and fellow Mason, Beaupreau.

Ravel is trying to make a living writing illegal essays critical of French society, royalty, the church, and government--and for a time is a suspect in the killing. Even though he is not comfortable working as an informer for the police, he must work to clear his name.

Alleyn has included several historical characters, and really makes pre-revolutionary Paris come to life: the slums, the people, the intellectual turmoil, the smells, the dark alleys and parks. Le bon travail! Fantastique! Superbe!

Armchair Interviews says: Riveting–a bit gruesome, but historically fascinating 5-star historical mystery.

At HistoricalNovels.info:
For her third Aristide Ravel mystery, The Cavalier of the Apocalypse, Susanne Alleyn moves back in time from post-revolutionary France to show how her sleuth met his employer, then Inspector Brasseur of the Paris police. In the winter of 1786, Ravel is an impoverished writer barely scraping together a living writing illegal tracts criticizing Louis XVI's government. The storming of the Bastille is still a couple of years away, but pressures are building.

Amid a rash of churchyard vandalism, a blood-drenched corpse is discovered near a scrawled representation of the Masonic compass-and-square symbol. Some of the Masons are "funny sorts," Brasseur tells Ravel, "young, educated, thwarted fellows like yourself, with a lot of ambition and nowhere to go, who have a bone to pick . . . with the folk in charge."

That would be too easy, of course, and the pursuit of the killer leads in some unusual directions before the culprit is unmasked, including to the workshop of the scientist Honoré Fragonard, an odd but talented cousin of the noted painter. Another intriguing trail involves the famous "Affair of the Necklace." Alleyn's twisty tale is full of red herrings and unexpected revelations. Her vivid and direct writing style makes it easy for readers to follow—though definitely not to anticipate—every twist.

As a prequel, The Cavalier of the Apocalypse makes an appealing introduction to the Aristide Ravel series for readers unfamiliar with the two previous mysteries. Essentially a police procedural, it showcases an early stage in the development of forensic science, which made impressive strides during the eighteenth century. Above all, though, it presents a strong picture of life in the end stages of the Ancien Régime, foreshadowing its fall and the bloodshed to come.
--Margaret Donsbach

At StopYoureKillingMe.com:
The Cavalier of the Apocalypse (Minotaur Books 2009) 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.
--Lucinda Surber

At Bookgasm.com:
I’m a fan of mysteries set in historical times, and if you are as well, then you’ll want to pick up Susanne Alleyn’s The Cavalier of the Apocalypse. Set in 1786 France, this is the third novel featuring Aristide Ravel, a somewhat down-and-out scribbler who writes occasionally incendiary political pamphlets and is trying to find his way in an unjust society.

He stumbles upon a church arson, and in his efforts to help put the fire out, also stumbles upon Inspector Brasseur, who is investigating the crime. At first, Ravel comes under his suspicion, but the inspector gradually learns that Ravel is a shrewd and intelligent individual, and one remarkably suited to police work.

When a man is found horribly murdered — with Masonic emblems carved into his chest, his throat slit, and his tongue hacked out by the roots — Brasseur and Ravel form a loose alliance in an effort to uncover the murderer.

The time and social mores of the setting are handled quite well. There may be a bit too much spouting of political philosophy, but it helps the modern American reader such as myself (who is none too familiar with French history) to get a feel for the era. The detective work is adequate, although Brasseur — who shows himself to be very sharp at the beginning of the tale — seems to contribute less as we move forward through the story.

Alleyn brings up some intriguing historical byways that are always the real treat for fans of this genre, and her story nicely rips through at an under-300 page count, welcome in this time of bloated fiction. Overall, it’s quite a successful little mystery, perfect for those who prefer the days of candlelights and horse carriages, and of a time when one gentleman could vouch for another and that would have to be a good enough alibi.
—Mark Rose

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