12/23/2023 0 Comments Review of the hider by loren estlemanWalker begins Cutthroat Dogs by shooting a bank robber in the leg. Not that the novels are free of violence. Walker spends most of his time solving puzzles by piecing together clues and getting a handle on ambiguous personalities. The novels move at a brisk pace, but Estleman doesn’t depend on shootouts and fistfights to carry the story. ![]() Estleman pushes all the buttons I look for in private detective fiction. If my application for a second life comes through, I’ll go back and read his Amos Walker series from the beginning. It succeeds in all the areas you expect solid historical fiction to succeed and is a first-rate thriller as well.Published by Forge Books on January 4, 2022 This novel is such a fast and engaging read you will forget you are reading about real people and come to believe that The Viper might actually kill Napoleon Bonaparte. To make things even more significant, The Viper has chosen Bastille Day for the day Napoleon will breathe his last. The suspense builds page by page as the inevitable showdown between The Viper and Napoleon gets closer. While using a custom-made valise full of special hidden compartments, The Viper is able to travel from London to Paris with the tools he requires to pull off this nefarious deed. We see first-hand evidence of The Viper’s work as he brutally kills a handful of people while preparing his plot to take out Napoleon. The Viper has a reputation that precedes him and, allegedly, there was only one person who knew his true identity. The money Cadoudal raises is put to good use when it is used to hire the infamous international assassin known simply as The Viper. Thankfully, there is a full list of characters at the front of the novel that came in very handy while reading it. He is also one of a small group of fictional characters created by Estleman for the purpose of this part of the story. One of the principal financial backers was Geoffrey Randle, Fourth Earl of Rexborough. Cadoudal moves on to a small group of benefactors to assist him in funding another assassination attempt, one that would not fail this time. It is at this point where Estleman picks up the fictional reins and supposes that Georges Cadoudal would not have been deterred by this failure and would pull out a new plan to take down Bonaparte under the premise that one man can make history while another can change it. Napoleon survived this assassination attempt, but the Christmas holiday was all but ruined for the residents of Paris. The concussion of the explosions gutted buildings on both sides of the Rue Saint-Nicaise, killing some occupants within their own beds. Josephine’s sister, Caroline, was smashed so hard into the side of the cab that her unborn child was impacted and later born an epileptic. The blasts went off as planned but only the wife of the First Consul’s coach was impacted, catching the outer edge of the explosion with no deaths to the occupants. Carbon was the one providing, and master-minding, the placement of the gunpowder utilized to blow up the Bonapartes as they paraded through the streets of Paris in celebration of the Yuletide season. The chief conspirator and ringleader of the Christmas Eve massacre was one Francois Carbon, a Brittany-born sailor who trained in the proper use of firearms and explosives under none other than French Loyalist Cadoudal. ![]() We know that the attempt was not successful, but the after-effects cost many people their lives and it is a historical event not very well known outside of Europe.Ī scoundrel by the name of Georges Cadoudal banded together with some like-minded conspirators to take down Napoleon. It is here where the story begins as Estleman retells the true events surrounding the infamous assassination attempt on the lives of the First Consul of the newly labeled Republic of France, Napoleon Bonaparte, and his wife, Josephine. The setting is Christmas Eve, 1800, and the location is Paris, France. The end result is the suspenseful new thriller titled The Eagle and the Viper. ![]() Estleman turns his attention to a novel that mixes actual historical events with speculative fictional events in sort of a ‘what if?’ fashion. Estleman reveals how close our world came to total war. A high-octane historical thriller, The Eagle and the Viper from novelist Loren D. One man can make history another can change it.
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