Where the Light Falls
Two idealistic young men’s fates entwine during the trial of General Christophe de Kellermann, a hero of the French Revolution. Jean-Luc St. Clair is the idealistic young lawyer tasked with Kellermann’s defense, and André de Valiere is the son of a guillotined nobleman who hopes to redeem himself with a distinguished military career; they are the focal characters in this earnest but flatly executed novel of life in Paris during the Terror.
Bestselling author Allison Pataki has teamed with her brother Owen, an Army veteran and filmmaker, for this project, which depends on characters too one-dimensional to support the ponderous weight of events in the story. Their mastery of the daily events of the Terror and of the military campaigns is evident, but they play fast and loose with some pretty significant events in the interest of creating “turning points” to imperil their characters. All this would be fine if the characters were compelling, but the authors rely on superficial description and stilted, “Americanized” dialogue. The two female characters are beautiful and loyal and not much else; they exist only to motivate Jean-Luc and André. The pace of the action picks up in the second half of the novel, but relies too heavily on coincidence, and the evil villains are of the cardboard variety.
