Starred review from August 17, 2015
Edgar-finalist Taylor’s outstanding second historical featuring Edward Savill (after 2013’s The Scent of Death) opens in 1792 Paris, where a 10-year-old boy, Charles, flees a bloody scene—but can’t tell anyone what he has witnessed, because someone ordered him to stay silent. Meanwhile in London, Savill, who’s acting as the agent for some wealthy Americans, learns that his estranged wife, Augusta, with whom he’s had no contact for five years, has been killed in Paris by a band of sansculottes who suspected she was a spy. Complications arise when he learns that Augusta had a son, Charles, who has been brought to Charnwood Court, an English country house. Having no reason to believe he’s the boy’s father, Savill wants nothing to do with Charles, but Augusta’s uncle persuades him to bring the child from Charnwood to London. The suspenseful, heart-breaking sections from Charles’s perspective evoke the spirit of Charles Dickens. Agent: Vivien Green, Sheil Land Associates (U.K.).
August 15, 2015
In Taylor's newest historical crime novel (The Scent of Death, 2014, etc.), Edward Savill, home in London after working for the American Department in New York during the Revolutionary War, must deal with a shocking personal crisis. Savill has left government to work as a property agent for foreign investors, but then comes unexpected news from Rampton, the former American Department head: he says his niece, Savill's long-estranged wife, Augusta, has been killed in revolutionary Paris. She's left a 10-year-old son, Charles, father unknown, who's been brought to England and left at Charnwood, near Bath, under the care of French refugees Fournier, a former cleric who may be an atheist; Count de Quillon, who "dabbl[ed] with the Revolution when it suited his purpose"; and their physician, Dr. Gohlis. Rampton, who's chief of the mysterious Black Letter Office, tells Savill he wants him to fetch the boy, an important task because there are "elements that have to do with the safety of the kingdom and the impending war with France." Savill is a cautious, intelligent protagonist, but he turns relentless after Charles is kidnapped and taken to London. Taylor's mystery is a true puzzler, but it's his mastery of life in chaotic Paris and London in 1792 that dazzles, and his portrayal of Charles, who was struck mute after his mother's killers terrorized him, is empathetic. The boy counts compulsively-"measurements make a fortress of facts that protects him as he sleeps"-and adopts an ecorche, a corpse transmuted into an anatomical model, as a friend. Motives push and pull. The count claims to be Charles' father. Rampton wants an heir. Savill feels a moral obligation to the child of a woman he once loved. As characters travel across England on nearly impassable muddy, rutted roads and stop at crude inns serving chicken, chops, and sherry, Taylor offers a readable take on social mores, class interactions, and great houses populated by aristocrats "icily elegant, ambitious to the point of ruthlessness." A touch of intrigue, a soupcon of espionage, wrapped in tense and suspense-laden mystery.
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Starred review from September 1, 2015
The French Revolution brought firsthand horrors for young Charleshe may even have seen his mother slaughtered. Found drenched in blood, he no longer speaks. Unfortunately, his nightmares don't end with his flight to England in the company of French refugees. Taylor, author of several historical crime novels, explores a severely damaged psyche in this atmospheric and suspenseful sequel to The Scent of Death (2014). Myriad adults, including some exceedingly evil people and a few nice ones who are secretly bad, kidnap, imprison, and threaten Charles. Meanwhile, Edward Saville, formerly married to Charles' mother, is asked to retrieve the boy, but, in the course of doing so, comes to doubt the motives of Charles' supposed patrons and decides to keep Charles himselfif he can find him. Evocative of late eighteenth-century England and the turmoil caused by revolution in France, the plot twists in this devilishly clever tale will confound even puzzle-masters. Meanwhile, the silent boy stands in metaphorical tribute to the innocent lives lost or destroyed by revolution, a theme also found in Tash Aw's Map of the Invisible World (2010). This compares well to the suspense and sheer adventure of Robert McCammon's Matthew Corbett mysteries and even Robert Louis Stevenson's Kidnapped.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)
October 1, 2015
Covered in blood, 11-year-old Charles, mute from the horror he has just witnessed, stumbles through the streets of 1792 Paris in the grips of revolution. No longer safe in France, Charles is sent to a country estate in England with other exiled aristocrats. Edward Savill, the estranged husband of Charles's mother, is dispatched to collect him from the estate and deliver him into the care of his great uncle. When Charles is kidnapped, Savill, unsure whom to trust in a complicated web of spies and betrayals, must find the boy before he is discovered by those who want him dead. VERDICT This second novel starring Savill (after the Crime Writers' Association Historical Dagger-winning The Scent of Blood) delves into the complicated world of English and French espionage during the French Revolution. A slow start is balanced by the increased pace of the novel's second half and a conclusion that simultaneously ties up loose ends while leaving enough open for future books. Many characters are thinly drawn, but the complicated intrigue and rich historical details of London life in the late 18th century, along with vivid descriptions of the sights, sounds, and smells Charles encounters on his journey, will keep readers engaged. [See Prepub Alert, 4/13/15.]--Sarah Cohn, Manhattan Coll. Lib., Bronx, NY
Copyright 2015 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
May 1, 2015
Taylor collected his third Crime Writers Association Historical Dagger for 2014's The Scent of Death, which opened a series starring Edward Savill. It's 1792, Savill is now the London agent for a wealthy American, and as the Reign of Terror claims his estranged wife in France, he arranges for their ten-year-old son, Charles, to be brought across the Channel. Alas, he finds the lad shocked mute by something terrible he's seen. With a 50,000-copy first printing.
Copyright 2015 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.