The Prisoner of the Riviera

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In postwar France, a gambler finds that surviving his vacation may be a long shotPeace has come to England and the blackout is over, but the gloom has yet to lift from London. One night, leaving a gambling club where he has run up a considerable tab, the young painter Francis Bacon, accompanied by his lover, sees a man gunned down in the street. They do what they can to stanch the flow of blood, but the Frenchman dies in the hospital. Soon afterward, Bacon receives a strange offer from the club owner: He will erase Bacon’s debts if the painter delivers a package to the dead man’s widow, Madame Renard, on the Riviera. What gambler could resist a trip to Monte Carlo?After handing over the parcel, Bacon learns that Madame Renard is dead—and the striking young woman who accepted the delivery is an imposter. The Riviera may be lovely, but in 1945, its sun-drenched beaches can be just as dark as the back alleys of London.Review“A writer who mixes venerated clue-chasing techniques with . . . political dynamite.” —Hartford Courant“Law draws a sympathetic, even tender study of a self-centered but essentially decent soul in the kind of torment that isn’t the least poetic.” —The New York Times< on The Lost Diaries of Iris Weed“Law powerfully evokes . . . uneasiness and rising tension, all in a narrative style sometimes verging on the poetic but always suspenseful.” —Kirkus Reviews on The Night Bus“Law does a bangup job of recreating London during the Blitz and portraying real-life artist Francis Bacon as an unlikely sleuth.” —Publishers Weekly on Fires of LondonAbout the AuthorJanice Law (b. 1941) is an acclaimed author of mystery fiction. The Watergate scandal inspired her to write her first novel, The Big Payoff (1977), which introduced Anna Peters, a street-smart young woman who blackmails her boss, a corrupt oil executive. The novel was a success, winning an Edgar nomination, and Law went on to write eight more in the series, including Death Under Par (1980) and Cross-Check (1997).After Death Under Par, Law set aside the character for several years to write historical mysteries The Countess (1989) and All the King’s Ladies (1986). After concluding the Peters series, she wrote three stand-alone suspense novels: The Night Bus (2000), The Lost Diaries of Iris Weed (2002), and Voices (2003). Since then, Law has focused on writing short stories, many of which appear in Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine. Prisoner of the Riviera (2013) is her most recent novel. She lives and writes in Connecticut.  Product DetailsFile Size: 748 KBPrint Length: 232 pagesPublisher: MysteriousPress.com/Open Road (December 10, 2013)Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc. Language: EnglishASIN: B00EP6PBG8Text-to-Speech: EnabledX-Ray:Not EnabledLending: Not EnabledAmazon Best Sellers Rank: #236,659 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store) Did we miss any relevant features for this product? Tell us what we missed. Would you like to give feedback on images or tell us about a lower price?Customer Reviews4.3 out of 5 stars(3)4.3 out of 5 stars5 star14 star23 star02 star01 star0See all 3 customer reviews Share your thoughts with other customersWrite a customer reviewMost Helpful Customer Reviews3 of 3 people found the following review helpful4.0 out of 5 stars Gritty, fun post-WWII mystery with unusual setting and wonderful narrator December 13, 2013By Unabridged ChickFormat:Kindle EditionLast year I read and adored Janice Law's previous novel featuring 20th century painter Francis Bacon, Fires of London. (It made my top ten of 2012!) I loved it for its dark and slightly raunchy tone, for being gritty and gay (homosexual, not cheerful), and for being atmospheric and escapist.I hadn't realized there was a chance of more Bacon so when I learned Law had written a second novel featuring him, I was over the moon. To my delight, the novel opened (literally, the second line!) with the same flippant seediness I loved in the first book.The war is over, and Francis is ready to leave post-war London, with the food shortages and lingering stink of war. He rallies his childhood nanny, who is nearly blind and deeply devoted to him, and his respectable lover Albert, for a trip to Monte Carlo. But after witnessing a man getting shot outside a club in London, Francis is tasked with taking the man's effects to his widow who just happens to live on the Riviera, and the endeavor proves more complicated than he anticipated.Francis narrates the story, and in Law's hands, he's wry, pithy, and sarcastic. Coy, too, for he sadly never dishes details on his liaisons. His voice is what makes these books so captivating: he's a reliable narrator who prefers night to day, the grotesque to the beautiful, the luxuries of life while slumming it. Law evokes the post-war Riviera in its complicated contradiction -- gorgeous beaches and sunny vistas, Vichy collaborators transforming themselves into Allied supporters -- and it makes a fascinating backdrop for a murder mystery.Fans of WWII settings will enjoy this one; the inclusion of a gay lead makes it all the more novel and interesting. Those new to the series will be fine picking this one up without being lost, but you will want to indulge in the delicious seediness of Francis, and I strongly encourage you to get Fires of London. Then get this one, so there will be a third Francis Bacon book! Comment | Was this review helpful to you?YesNo2 of 2 people found the following review helpful5.0 out of 5 stars A page turner with a seasoning of history - grab this book! December 25, 2013By Bill BakerFormat:Kindle EditionBritish painter Francis Bacon becomes entangled in the post-war French Riviera when he tries to deliver a package to a widow in exchange for the forgiving of his gambling debts.But he soon finds out that the supposed widow is a stand in for a murdered woman, herself not who she was supposed to be, and then he gets picked up by the police.Plot complication follows plot complication until Bacon find, beaten, nearly stabbed and shot, finds it difficult just who the good guys are.This is one page turning mystery with an intriguing seasoning of history that will keep you out of trouble till the last page – grab this book! Comment | Was this review helpful to you?YesNo1 of 2 people found the following review helpful4.0 out of 5 stars Like Bertie Wooster, with several important tweaks December 27, 2013By Maine Colonial TOP 500 REVIEWERVINE VOICEFormat:Kindle EditionFor her second Francis Bacon novel, The Prisoner of the Riviera, Janice Law jumps ahead to 1946. At first, I was disappointed that Law had chosen to leave the London-in-wartime setting she managed so atmospherically in the first novel, Fires of London. But I quickly got over it. Setting stories in the immediate postwar period seems to be all the rage these days, or maybe that's just a coincidence in my recent reading. It's a rewarding period because, as Law has one character put it, in France "power was lying on the ground during the war" and it was picked up by dubious characters who couldn't just return to the plow when the war was over. These characters abound in The Prisoner of the Riviera.Let's back up and set the scene. Francis is out for dinner in London with his longtime lover, Arnold, when they come upon a man who has been shot and is bleeding to death in the street. Francis uses all his ARP training skills to keep the man alive until an ambulance arrives, but it doesn't look good. He is contacted shortly afterward by M. Joubert, proprietor of a London casino that holds a dauntingly large number of Francis's gambling chits. Joubert tells Francis that the man, a Monsieur Renard, did die after a few days in the hospital, but left a farewell letter for his wife, who lives in the south of France. If Francis will deliver the letter, Joubert will tear up Francis's chits.There's something rotten about this setup, right? You and I know it, and so do Francis, Arnold, and even Francis's old Nanny Lightfoot. Aside from the imbalance between the value of the gambling chits and the going rate for in-person mail delivery, there's something fishy about that letter. Francis and Nan couldn't resist painstakingly removing and replacing the wax seal on the letter, and they suspect it's really a coded message--though one they can't crack without a cipher key. But it's cold, grey and rainy in London and the rationing means the food is even more depressing than the weather. Who can resist the siren call of the Riviera?After enjoying a few days in the sun, Francis decides it's about time to deliver the letter to Mme. Renard. Afterward, he narrowly avoids attack from a couple of goons as he heads back to his hotel and, soon after that, he learns that Mme. Renard was found murdered later that same day--and he is the number one suspect.Attempting to clear his name and avoid a long stretch in a French prison, Francis uses a couple of false identities to investigate the murder and figure out what this supposed farewell letter really is. He's not the only one interested, and soon it seems that the entire south of France is seething with characters who are after the letter, Francis and each other. They all seem to have had secret underground pasts during the war, but it's impossible to be sure which side they were on, if not both, and whether their current intentions are to help Francis, use him, abuse him or carve him up.Here's an odd thing. When I read The Prisoner of the Riviera, I kept thinking about P.G. Wodehouse. In part it's because most of the story is set in the south of France, where Bertie Wooster often used to go to get into trouble gambling and falling in love. And here's Francis, on his arrival in Nice: "Have I mentioned my fondness for sailors? I have a weakness, as Nan would say, for members of the maritime profession, for the toilers of the sea, for jolly jack-tars and also the not-so-jolly ones, who are really more to my taste." Can you see a Wodehouse-ish style in that? I can.There's a lot more about Janice Law's writing style here that makes me think her Francis Bacon is a sort of Bertie Wooster-ish character---if Bertie had a dozen or two more IQ points, considerably less of "the ready," liked risky sex (with men) and kept running into murders. The books are written in the first person, and even when fists are flying or guns are blazing, there is an air of Bertie describing one of his sticky wickets.And, like Bertie Wooster, Francis is soon beset with troubles involving false identities, mistaken impressions, getting caught sneaking into other people's houses and bedrooms--and even being bedeviled by a pair of troublesome aunts. I found the book a dizzyingly improbable but delightful caper, just like a Wodehouse story. Unlike a Wodehouse story, this one does have a great deal of serious crime and danger in it, but for mystery lovers, that's all to the good.Note: I received a free review text of the ebook version of this title from the publisher, via Netgalley. Read more ›Comment | Was this review helpful to you?YesNo› See all 3 customer reviews (newest first) Write a customer review Search Customer Reviews Only search this product's reviews ForumsLook for Similar Items by CategoryBooks > Literature & Fiction > Genre Fiction > HistoricalBooks > Mystery, Thriller & Suspense > Mystery > HistoricalKindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Historical Fiction > Mystery, Thriller & SuspenseKindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Mystery, Thriller & Suspense > Mystery > HistoricalThere's a problem loading this menu right now.Learn more about Amazon Prime.Watch. Read. Shop. Relax. Millions of Amazon Prime members enjoy instant videos, free Kindle books and unlimited free two-day shipping. 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