A corpse is discovered in a derelict jazz club, its lips sewn tight with twine. The victim, Eddie finds out, is an old lag who should be in prison. After he learns that other criminals are also out on the streets, given early release in mysterious circumstances, he realises that he has stumbled on a conspiracy involving French criminals and German occupiers. A page-turning, morally complex thriller. (Best Historical Fiction Books of 2023) * SUNDAY TIMES *
Chris Lloyd follows up the excellent The Unwanted Dead with another terrific slice of historical noir. In his vivid recreation of Paris under German occupation, French policeman Eddie Giral - trapped between Nazis, gangsters and his own conscience - finds himself morally compromised following the discovery of several mutilated bodies. Once again, the prose sparkles with Lloyd's mordant wit and gallows humour, illuminating the depravity of an evil regime. * VASEEM KHAN *
Lloyd does a masterly job of conjuring a hungry, defeated Paris. Eddie is a convincing protagonist; a flawed man trying his best to be a good one. * THE TIMES *
It's the book Raymond Chandler might have written if he had lived and breathed the Nazi Occupation of Paris... Paris Requiem is more than a historical crime novel, it's a tour de force. To read it is to have lived in occupied Paris, to have experienced its many-layered devastation. But to read it is also to have walked, in Eddie Giral's skin, through the decisions and betrayals, the compromises and dubious triumphs of an investigation which should, by rights, have killed him. * ALIS HAWKINS *
A haunting and eye-opening portrayal of life under occupation. * ADELE PARKS *
A stellar sequel to 2020's The Unwanted Dead. In 1940 Nazi-occupied Paris, police detective Eddie Giral, a wise-cracking maverick determined to stay faithful to his responsibilities despite the risks to his life, investigates the death of a man found in a jazz club...Little details, such as the occupied city now being governed by German time, which runs an hour ahead of French time, bring the period to life. Admirers of J. Robert Jane's St-Cyr and Kohler series will be delighted. * PUBLISHERS WEEKLY (starred review) *
[A] superbly atmospheric thriller, which oozes moral ambiguity. * BOOKLIST (starred review) *
This smart historical thriller centers on a WWII-era Paris policeman who finds himself working on behalf of the occupiers, pushing him into a moral crisis and a new case that forces him to confront the true extent of the damage being done to the soul of his city. * DWYER MURPHY, CrimeReads Editor in Chief *
Lloyd paints a vivid picture of Paris: the lines of people trying to buy highly rationed food, the jazz clubs where they try to escape their miseries, and their persistent attempts to block out the brutal facts of the occupation. The plot action is suspenseful and intense. The characters-both heroes and villains-are vividly drawn. This is definitely a captivating read! * HISTORICAL NOVEL SOCIETY *
In Chris Lloyd's historical mystery Paris Requiem, the year is 1940. The City of Light is occupied by German troops. The Eiffel Tower is closed. All songbirds have fled . . . [Detective Eddie Giral] ekes partial wins out of this amoral game: Private triumphs I could share with no one-except the spellbound reader. * WALL STREET JOURNAL *
