Floats the Dark Shadow Audiobook Blog Tour: Review

Publication Date: August 5, 2012
BearCat Press
Formats: Hardcover, Paperback, eBook, Audio

Genre: Historical Mystery

Synopsis

Young American painter Theodora Faraday struggles to become an artist in Belle Époque Paris. She’s tasted the champagne of success, illustrating poems for the Revenants, a group of poets led by her adored cousin, Averill. When children she knows vanish mysteriously, Theo confronts Inspecteur Michel Devaux who suspects the Revenants are involved. Theo refuses to believe the killer could be a friend—could be the man she loves. Classic detection and occult revelation lead Michel and Theo through the dark underbelly of Paris, from catacombs to asylums, to the obscene ritual of a Black Mass. Following the maze of clues they discover the murderer believes he is the reincarnation of the most evil serial killer in the history of France—Gilles de Rais. Once Joan of Arc’s lieutenant, after her death he plunged into an orgy of evil. The Church burned him at the stake for heresy, sorcery, and the depraved murder of hundreds of peasant children. Whether deranged mind or demonic passion incite him, the killer must be found before he strikes again.

So What Did I Think About The Story?

Floats the Dark Shadow is a beautifully written story that is dark, disturbing and sensual as a tale of love and art against the backdrop of madness and murder. The portions told from the perspective of the killer, believing he is the reincarnation of Gilles de Rais, are beyond chilling and made me feel like I was actually within the mind of a madman. Following Theo and Inspector Devaux as they both try to uncover who is kidnapping, torturing and killing innocent children was thrilling and I can honestly say I did not see the eventual revelation coming!

My only complaint with Floats the Dark Shadow deals with the format and not the story at all, which I loved. I listened to the audiobook version of the story and given the many French names, the accents put on by the narrator and the fact that most of the characters sounded alike made it hard to keep up with the intricate plotlines and  differentiate between the characters. Being that this story is a mystery to unravel the killer I found this frustrating and confusing at times.

With this being said, the descriptions of Paris and the surrounding countryside are breathtaking and really transport the reader/listener to Belle Epoque Paris. Theo is by far my favorite character as I found her to be well developed and admirable in her originality, determination and kindness. I believe if I had been reading this story as opposed to listening to it and able to flip back and forth between the pages I would have had less difficulty keeping up with the intricacies of the plot to discover the sadistic murderer and this would have helped with the confusion I experienced. I will also note to those thinking about picking this one up that it is quite graphic at times but, for me, this was needed to highlight the depravity of the participants and the deep-seeded dementia of the killer.

I would recommend this to those who love dark novels set in Paris during this time and those that enjoy a twisted journey to find a murderer and stop him from bringing more children into his web of destruction.

So What Did I Think About The Cover?

It's okay. I think I would have preferred a more ominous shadow lurking above a frightened child to really evoke the feelings brought on by the story, but the darkness and relative isolation go some way to bring about the chilling feelings I would expect.    


My Rating: 4.0/5.0

 

Thank you to Amy at Historical Fiction Virtual Book Tours for providing me with a free copy of the audiobook in exchange for an honest review. Please continue below for more information about the book, the author and the book tour!

 

 

 

Praise for Floats the Dark Shadow

 

 

“Yves Fey writes with the eye of an artist, the nose of a perfumer and the nerves of a hardened gendarme in this chilling tale of love and love’s perversion. Not for the faint of heart!” — Cuyler Overholt, award-winning author of A Deadly Affection

“Fey’s writing is gorgeous: she evokes the sights and smells of Paris and poetically presents the darkness and horror that plague tormented souls.” — Historical Novel Society

“Paris is painted with uncanny realism, using masterful splashes of descriptive color against a somber backdrop … The characters develop as their entwined relationships become ever more enmeshed in the dark plot woven around mysticism, Satanism, and sadistic murders…” — Kirkus Reviews

“Yves Fey delves into the dark well of occult, violence and eroticism lying just beneath the surface of fin-de-siècle Paris. The valiant heroine, American artist Theo Faraday, confronts the ultimate evils of child torture and murder as the serpentine page-turning plot unfolds. Beware! It’s strong stuff.” — Barbara Corrado Pope, author of Cézanne’s Quarry and The Blood of Lorraine

“This dark, gothic tale will delight fans of decadent, sensuous, fin-de-siècle Paris.” — Kenneth Wishnia, award-winning author of 23 Shades of Black and The Fifth Servant

“Yves Fey recreates the haunting world of absinthe, of the Symbolist poets, of Salomé, of the Golden Dawn, and of darker, more unfathomable forces, that was Paris in 1897. This well-researched thriller offers satisfyingly complex characters. Powerful, violent, elegant.” —Beth Tashery Shannon, Pushcart Prize winner, author of Tanglevine

Buy the Book

Amazon US
Barnes & Noble
Book Depository
IndieBound


Watch The Trailer

About The Author

Floats the Dark Shadow, Yves Fey’s debut mystery set in the dynamic and decadent world of Belle Époque Paris, has won the Silver Medal “IPPY” Independent Publishers Award in mystery, and both the Mystery and Historical Finalist Awards from the Next Generation Indie Book Awards. It’s also nominated for ForeWord’s Independent Publishers BookTwitter of the Year Award in the Mystery

Category.

Yves has an MFA in Creative Writing from Eugene Oregon, and a BA in Pictorial Arts from UCLA. She has read, written, and created art from childhood, and is an ardent movie buff. In her varied career, she has been a tie dye artist, go-go dancer, baker, creator of ceramic beasties, illustrator, fiction teacher, and now, novelist. A chocolate connoisseur, she’s won prizes for her desserts. Her current fascination is creating perfumes inspired by her new novel.

Yves has traveled to many countries in Europe and lived for two years in Indonesia. Currently, she resides in the San Francisco area with her husband and three cats, Marlowe the Investigator and Charlotte and Emily, the Flying Brontë Sisters.

Writing as Gayle Feyrer and Taylor Chase, she previously published four unusually dark and mysterious historical romances, The Prince of Cups, The Thief’s Mistress, Heart of Deception and Heart of Night. She plans to rerelease these with her own cover designs in the coming year. Her fantasy, House of the Twin Jewels, appears in Erotic Interludes.

For more information please visit Yves Fey’s website. You can also connect with her on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Goodreads.

 

Floats the Dark Shadow Blog Tour

Monday, October 13
Spotlight & Giveaway at Passages to the Past

Tuesday, October 14
Spotlight & Giveaway at Flashlight Commentary

Wednesday, October 15
Review at Peeking Between the Pages

Thursday, October 16
Review & Giveaway at Beth’s Book Reviews

Friday, October 17
Review at Just One More Chapter

Monday, October 20
Review at CelticLady’s Reviews

Tuesday, October 21
Review & Giveaway at 100 Pages a Day – Stephanie’s Book Reviews

Wednesday, October 22
Review at Historical Tapestry

Thursday, October 23
Review at Brooke Blogs

Friday, October 24
Review at The True Book Addict
Review & Giveaway at A Bookish Affair



Books of a Lifetime by Yves Fey + international giveaway

I have many favorite novels not on the list, but for my books of a lifetime I’ve chosen the ones that I return to most often. First is Tolkien’s peerless epic, The Lord of the Rings. I discovered The Fellowship of the Ring in the early 60s, before the brouhaha, and spent about three years trying to get the rest of the series from the library. It was always checked out. Then, magically, it appeared in paperback in my local store. Tolkien is a master stylist, his prose gorgeous without ever being flashy (I love flashy, but I’m awed by his purity and clarity). His language is devoted to the realization of his world, one of the most brilliant ever conceived. It is one of the great everyman stories. I never fail to weep when Frodo leaves for the Grey Havens. The ending leaves me bereft, but the book fills me with joy and renewed hope. I reread the entire series at least once a decade. It is a gift that will endure.

After TLOTR, the books I reread most are probably Dorothy L. Sayers Harriet Vane and Peter Wimsey romantic mysteries. I’ve read the quartet a half dozen times, and my two favorites, Have His Carcase and Gaudy Night, more often. I adore that she pulled off the ultimate Mary Sue novels, where her beloved hero falls for her own alter ego, and we don’t scorn her for it. I worship her elegance and wit - the opening of Have His Carcase is as brilliant as Austen. And the quartet forms a wonderful love story with the tantalizing tension she creates between Harriet and Peter, and the exquisite detail with which she renders it. She excels in her deft characterizations of the minor characters. While I generally prefer dark and broody reads, I can go to the dark-edged brightness of her classic mysteries for a delicious escape.

Mysteries are the genre I read the most, though with few exceptions I do not reread them. One exception is John le Carré, specifically the trilogy of George Smiley’s shadow world of espionage. Le Carré is a master of dialogue. I don’t think any character is ever tongue-tied in his books, yet their voices are always unique and individual. Connie Sachs is one of my favorite female characters. I wish Le Carre had given Connie a book to herself, a grey and gritty Miss Marple at Oxford mystery to solve on her own. The other enduring exception is Raymond Chandler because of his extravagant yet ironic style (he was as inconspicuous as a tarantula on a piece of angel food cake). I have a battered but treasured set of Chandler paperbacks with the 70s covers by Tom Adams, and a copy of his book of Agatha Christie covers.

Like many others, I also return to Dorothy Dunnett’s Lymond Chronicles and her devious, vitriolic, brilliant hero Francis Crawford of Lymond and his fascinating adventures across a broad map of the 16th century. Her style is baroque (I did say I love flashy), and its saturated brilliance and detail suits the flamboyance of the period. Dunnett and Tolkien are among the few who can write long action scenes that hold my attention. Dunnett does it by leavening bursts of beautifully choreographed movement with thought and dialogue without ever disrupting the pace. I also admire her utter ruthlessness, killing off her darlings (the readers’ favorites) without mercy to further the story.

Equally often I return to Mary Renault, her Greek novels and her Alexander books. Of these my favorites are The Last of the Wine, The King Must Die, and The Persian Boy. Her romantic sensibility captivates me. I love her characters, and her world building is breathtaking. I appreciate her early affirmation of homosexual relationships, writing unapologetically when homosexuality was still scorned by society in general, and offering a world in which those open to change could begin to do so.

I have also returned to J.R.R. Salamanca’s haunting Southern Gothic novel Lilith. La Belle Dame Sans Merci is one of my favorite poems and Lilith is a beautiful and tragic modern embodiment of Keats’ vision. Also I return to it because I knew a Lilith, who if not mad was quite willing to abandon mundane truth in the quest for the ever-tempting lure of the mythic.

The Brothers Karamazov is a book which is always with me and forever influences how I see the world. Dostoyevsky is another ruthless writer, but unlike Dunnett, I believe he simply could not help his merciless honesty, but feared and dreaded it, even shredding his own most dearly held beliefs by putting them in the mouths of fools. Dostoyevsky could go down the rabbit hole of any character’s mind, down to the darkest pit, and sometimes fling himself free once again. Sometimes not. I think his only equal in character conception is Shakespeare.

I will close with two other books I have reread several times, one which has another of my favorite openings, and the other my favorite closing. The first is Robert Penn Warren’s All The Kings Men, with its drive down the blinding, sweltering highway into another era and the eternal swamp of moral dilemma. The last is F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, a great book whose final paragraphs forever fill me with the heartbreaking poignance of lost dreams.


THE GIVEAWAY:

- open worldwide
- one entry per household
- leave a comment until the 30 Septembre at midnight GMT.

 

_____________________________________________________________

 

FLOATS THE DARK SHADOW is Yves Fey's first historical mystery, set in the dynamic and decadent world of Belle Époque Paris. Yves Fey has an MFA in Creative Writing from Eugene Oregon, and a BA in Pictorial Arts from UCLA. She has read, written, and created art from childhood. A chocolate connoisseur, she's won prizes for her desserts. Her current fascination is creating perfumes. She's traveled to many countries in Europe and lived for two years in Indonesia. She currently lives in the San Francisco area with her husband and three cats. Writing as Gayle Feyrer and Taylor Chase, she previously published unusually dark and mysterious historical romances.