Game of Patience
When two people are found murdered in post-revolutionary Paris, police agent Aristide Ravel investigates. Ravel discovers the male victim was blackmailing the other victim, a wealthy young woman named Célie. Célie’s friend, Rosalie, insists that the young woman’s fiancé had to have committed the murders in a crime of passion. Aubry had apparently uncovered Célie’s seduction and pregnancy by the blackmailer and has no alibi for the night of the murders. Ravel is attracted to the enigmatic Rosalie, but the more he delves into the crime, he thinks Rosalie knows far more than she’s telling and may be somehow involved. In the gritty, back-streets of Paris, Ravel struggles to find the truth and save Rosalie from the growing threat of the guillotine.
The Paris of 1796 comes alive in Alleyn’s fast-paced novel. Readers will be surprised by the ending, with its twisted scenario of rape and revenge.