I’ve become a big fan of Louis Bayard recently. He does a great job of weaving together historical stories into an interesting mystery. His books involve real people (Edgar Allen Poe from The Pale Blue Eye) or fictional (Tiny Tim from Mr. Timothy) or a historical group (the French revolution in The Black Tower) and crafts a mystery. But, now he’s decided to make a slight change to the formula in his latest book, The School of Night. The book is based on the real-life genius Thomas Harriot. Harriot invented the theory of refraction, made a detailed moon drawing before Galileo did, influenced Johannes Kepler, discovered Snell’s law before Snell, discovered Girard theorem before Girard. As you can tell he was a very smart guy who didn’t publish his work very much. The story is based on him, but set half in the present day. It’s another historical mystery, only this time with an English mathematics genius.

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Louis Bayard has found a formula that works for him. He goes back in time and brings out a historical person, real (Edgar Allen Poe from The Pale Blue Eye) or not (Tiny Tim from Mr. Timothy) and crafts a mystery involving that person. And he continues this tradition in The Black Tower. The historical figure this time is Eugène François Vidocq, an ex-con who went straight and became the real-life Sherlock Holmes of France (a century before Sherlock Holmes was created). This tale from post Napolean France does a great job at capturing the mood of the people after 20 years of revolution and war. So, let’s meet up with Vidocq and his latest tale.

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