The Gargoyle in the Seine by Dee Garretson

Title: The Gargoyle in the Seine
Author: Dee Garretson
Publish Date: 2011
Publisher: Self-published
Pages: 302
Buy the Book: Amazon 
Rating: ★★★★★

The City of Light has some dark places. Art student Clary Ashton can’t imagine a more perfect spot to study painting than Paris in the spring of 1878, until she witnesses a body thrown into the Seine, the body of Liam Heaton, another art student with a mysterious background. What Clary thinks is murder becomes much more as Liam’s secrets come to light, and Clary finds herself drawn into a world she didn‘t realize existed, one spanning both the murky underworld and the glittering salons of the city.

Caught between two dangerous men -a political extremist days away from a royal assassination, and the young intrepid British secret agent who is determined to stop him - Clary doesn’t know who to trust. She does know that if she doesn’t find the murderer, she may become a victim herself.

Dee Garretson captures Paris in 1878 with beautiful descriptions and enchanting dialog that makes me want to see if it really was how she said it was. In The Gargoyle in the Seine, you witness not only the beauty of Paris but also the darkness that lingers in plain sight. 

Clary Ashton is great main character with all of her spitfire qualities that linger in the back of your mind once you're done reading about her. She is stubborn and creative, a great mixture when it comes to reading about a book's main character. From the beginning of the book, she captures your interest and if anything, you read to see what happens to her.

All the characters, good and bad, are interestingly portrayed and you will find yourself cheering for people that you hated in the beginning. Well, maybe not hate but dislike a lot. Also in the end, you will find yourself questioning if your first opinions of characters you liked were really all that true. You learn to question the motives of everyone throughout the novel because no one is beyond betrayal.

I am not ashamed to admit that I love historical fiction, mostly because of the way the clothes are captured in the writer's mind and the way the characters speak. There is a certain amount of familiarity and difference between then and now that has always intrigued me. Dee Garretson definitely did not fall short when it came to breathing life into her version of Paris and yet, she still maintains a certain amount of today's language in the narrative to be helpful to readers. 

I really liked this book and I plan on reading it again. If you like historical fiction, then you will like this.