received this arc through Obsessive Pimpettes for an honest review, I don't like to give the story away, so don't expect a revelation of the ending from me! The Green Muse Is a story that intricately entwines the lives of people from different walks of life.
The characters are well rounded, at times with almost a little too much detail, Edouard, a photographer of the deceased at crime scenes, Augustine, the innocent country girl that seeks a better life in Paris V amp Charles, who morbidly enjoy watching the unclaimed deceased on display in the Paris morgue.
It's quite a vivid tale of murder amp mystery, a must read if this is the genre you enjoy!
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sitelinkMon avis en Français
sitelinkMy English review
I was quickly drawn to this novel depicting a time in France that I find fascinating.
Then a story in France by a foreign author is always interesting to see,
We alternately follow three different points of view, Moreover, we do not really understand at the outset when the characters will be reunited together and when the stories will be linked, Oh yes because it must be said that nothing presaged a crime scene photographer, a young girl from a good family and a student to intersect one day in their life.
Thus we follow Augustine, a young girl in love with a married man who does not love her back and because of her strange behavior within her family, she is placed in an institution, La Salpêtrière, where they think she is hysterical.
She does not really know if shes crazy as everyone says it, or if she just does not have the proper behavior because of her oneway relationship.
Augustine is a young pretty touching girl who discovers feelings and what this implies, though she does not really know what to do with all that.
Its a pretty quiet person, manipulated and innocent that we discover through the chapters in the form of diaries she wrote to tell whats going on in her life.
The second character that we follow is Edward, He is a photographer, a designer who gets to take the soul of his subjects to make real works, He is called on many crime scenes but the last he attends are strange and the police do not seem interested in what he has to say.
Edward therefore decides to understand what is happening and who is responsible for it all, But it could be much more complicated than expected, and people close to him could end up in danger,
Our third hero is none other than Charles, This man, a student, is fascinated by death, He goes with his friends to the morgue every week to discover the death art along with this, A strange character who meets at this place a young unhealthy woman, V, and opens up to a world of death, V is a manipulative person, sick, dark who plays with death, She will project Charles in a world of murder which he can not get out, It must be said that the beautiful girl is very good at obtaining what she wants to have and Charles will do anything for her.
It was a very strange novel, I had a little trouble to really get into the story and Im not sure whether I have completely succeeded, But one thing is certain, the author shows us something very different from what we can find, and I was curious to see how everything would be linked together.
It was also interesting to see what these characters would do next, Were a bit lost in the chapters which are presented in different forms as I said, with letters, diaries, but also usual chapters, It was an interesting discovery even if I have a little trouble explaining exactly what my feeling was,
Harper Collins BookPerkThis is a delightfully twisted story of murder, addiction, art, mental illness and feminist ideas, The chapters are told by alternating characters, This is the Belle Epoche era in Paris, and the "scenery" okay, mostly the clothes is lovingly described, Absinthe the Green Muse of the title is almost a character in and of itself, The ritual of preparation is so meticulously recounted each and every time Charles imbibes and he imbibes often, The sugar cubes. The drip, drip, drip of ice cold water, The gradual clouding of the bright green liquid, And finally, the calming feeling,
This is a story where the reader isn't concerned with who the murderer is you know early on, but with how the murderer's plans will be foiled.
If you're looking for something historial, atmospheric, a little dark and grim, this is it,
While I thoroughly enjoyed the story, here's my complaint, I read the digital edition of this book and it would have benefited greatly from a second reading by a proofreader, Missing words. Missing quotation marks at either the beginning or end of dialog, It was distracting enough so, that I did consider not finishing the book, So publishing houses don't think that we don't notice, because we do, And we don't like it, In Belle Époque Paris, the morgue is the place to see and be seen
"This morning I was called upon to photograph the dead again.
" So begins the story of Edouard Mas, a photographer's assistant with a detective's soul, Edouard's job is to take pictures of corpses before they are carted off to the Paris Morgue, If the bodies are unidentified, they will be put behind glass for the whole city to view, in a morbid display of lost and found.
Edouard begins to come across more and more bodies stripped of their identification and laid out in methodical poses, and he knows he is dealing with those who dabble in artthe art of death.
The morguetheir museum.
Edouard's investigation takes him from the sterile halls of La Salpêtrière to the opulent, smokefilled soirees of high society, but he must do everything in his power to stop the artists of death, before they go after somebody he loves
In exquisite proseso vivid you can almost taste the absinthe and hear the rustling skirts of the Moulin Rouge showgirlsHunter tells an unforgettable tale of murder and lust in the City of Light.
Death and love in the City of Light, This story is told by multiple people, It shows their struggles as people, Edouard is called out to photograph death, He is a man that everything is not black and white, He is a keen observer, He strives to find out the answers even if he isn't an investigator, When he finds himself at a woman's psychiatric institution, he still doesn't see things as simply as everyone else does, He wants to protect Augustine from everyone,
Edouard is considered naive in the book of death and absinthe, I don't find him naive but more openminded, He just doesn't consider a woman used good because she is a prostitute, He assumes she has a good reason to why she has found herself in this situation, Murder and the sick mind play a huge role in this book, Not really a mystery involving some historical figures in later nineteenth century Paris,
There are problems with the setting which do not reflect nineteenth century Paris life or manners, The absinthe content really has no reference to reality but more of penny dreadfuls, A frenchman would never carry it along in a flask and it is no more addictive than any other alcoholic drink,
The major issue I had about it was none of the characters felt french, I have read a lot of nineteenth century french literature including almost all of Balzac and all the characters talk and act like Englishmen.
If it was not for the underlying elements of Salpetriere and the Morgue it could have taken place in London and been more believable.
They spelled my name wrong! It's Prichard, no T, I am not going to rate this one because it was a DNF for me, Way too dark and just plain gross, Not my thing. The nineteenth century is winding down, At the Paris Morgue, hundreds of people line up every day to view bodies recovered but not identified, This perverse pastime is made possible in order to assist in naming those who have met an untimely death,
Edouard Mas photographs the dead at the scene of the crime, The police use his photographs to aid them in solving and prosecuting crimes,
Edouard and his wife, V, are fascinated with the grotesque and the gory and the gruesome, They take perverse pleasure in dead bodies, They visit the Paris Morgue, along with hundreds of others, to view bodies recovered but not identified, To further feed their frenzy, they begin committing violent murders,
"The Green Disease: A yellowish,
green or blue hue to the skin, pains in the head, feelings of oppression, The Green Disease is a manifestation of the frustration of sexual desire in the female, " Marriage can be a cure, Young women with the Green Disease are often sent to the asylum to be treated for their symptoms, Edouard is invited to the asylum to photograph these unfortunate young ladies,
This is a bizarre novel featuring perverted characters performing unlawful actions, Not for the faint of heart, Liked the timeframe, even though this story was particularly dark, If you are offended about the use of drugs and alcohol along with senseless murder just for artistic kicks, stay away from this book.
However, if that doesn't bother you and you enjoy historical fiction following the story lines of different people, some more innocent than others, it was an interesting read.
I did get lost in some of the ramblings and the story didn't hold my interest, But, the action finally kicked in when the characters stories converged, I was drawn into the story because of Edouard Mas' profession of photographing the dead in crime scenes, Jessie Prichard Hunter is an American novelist, She is the author of three psychological thrillers, She currently resides in New Yorks Hudson Valley with her husband and two children, See also sitelink Jessie Hunter Jessie Prichard Hunter is an American novelist, She is the author of three psychological thrillers, She currently resides in New York's Hudson Valley with her husband and two children, See also sitelink Jessie Hunter sitelink,