Critical Praise

Readers be grateful, THE BLACK TOWER breathes life into the world’s first police detective, Vidocq, an overdue literary feat that happily waited for this novelist. As the gripping and nuanced story races through the parlor rooms and back alleys of Paris, Louis Bayard shows why he is at the forefront of literary historical fiction today.

—Matthew Pearl, author of THE DANTE CLUB and THE POE SHADOW

Having previously channeled Dickens and Poe, historical novelist Bayard throws down the gauntlet to Dumas in another high-energy melodrama. The novel’s witty succession of trapdoor endings, culminating in “the quietest of abdications,” keeps surprising us. Who says they don’t write ‘em like this anymore? Long may Bayard reign.

—Kirkus Reviews

A compelling and sympathetic narrator instantly draws the reader into Bayard's stellar third historical. Few writers today can match the author’s skill in devising an intelligent thriller with heart.

—Publishers Weekly (starred review)