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Winter 1910. Paris. A prostitute called Mona Lisa is found dead with Baron Alexander von Reisden's card in her pocket. A man calling himself "Her Artist" sends very poorly constructed notes to Sacha, imploring him to bury her properly. In Boston, Gilbert Knight who is financing Perdita Halley's piano studies at the Conservatoire in Paris, is wondering how he can gracefully send her more money from his father's estate, and have her accept it. His nephew, once called Richard, now the Baron von Reisden, will not accept any, He has made a life for himself, also in Paris. Knight sends Roy Daugherty over to investigate and to see what can be done. Meanwhile, Perdita is working toward her debut. If she gets good reviews in the Paris newspapers, she will be able to tour in the US. Sacha has rented a house in Courbevoie, a suburb on the other side of the Seine, near The Grande Jatte, only 2 1/2 miles from the Arc de Triomphe. The house contains a piano and Perdita can go there on Sundays, when the Conservatory is closed, to practice. The Viscountess Dorothea de Gresniere, the Baron's "cousin" does not approve of Perdita, but there is nothing she can do about it. She just hopes that the Baron will "get over" his infatuation with this nearly blind girl, 10 years younger than he is. In the meantime, they are trying to find a way to authenticate Dotty's Mallais painting, an impressionistic masterpiece upon which doubt has recently been cast. The house rented for Perdita sits in what was once part of Mallais' garden. His widow and her brother live in a house on the other side of a wall built by Madame Mallais after the second house was built. Meanwhile, it is raining more heavily than usual all over Europe. The rivers are swelling. There are tales of floods to the east of Paris, but the French continue with their daily lives. The book continues detailing the lives of these and the other denizens of Dotty's salons. Leonardo, a guard at the Louvre, continues to stalk von Reisden. Alexander continues with his work. He owns the Jouvert, a house that contains the records of 4 generations of mentally disturbed Parisians. The house is in what is now the student district of Paris, in the low lying area of the Left Bank. It continues to rain. The soil becomes saturated with moisture. The rivers fill their beds. Part of the subway system of Paris is under construction, and there is intermittent flooding of some of the tunnels. The sewers start to fill. The tunnels from the abandoned lead mines under the city start to fill. And the denouement of all the stories of all the people in the book combine with the Paris flood of 1910. The writing of this book is a little more florid than I am comfortable with, but it works in this, the second book of the trilogy written by Smith. I have friends who used to live in the very street next to where the Maison Jouvert was supposed to have been and I could visualize the damage caused by the rushing waters, both above and below ground. The story builds to this climax which is quite well done. I read the first book in the trilogy. THE VANISHED CHILD, several years ago, but had forgotten it; I only remember that I was not impressed with it. Enough was recapped in this one to make reading the first unneccesary, but I would advise that, if you like exquisitely detailed writing, do start with the first of the three.
Reviewed by Barbara Franchi, January 2003
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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
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