Banquet of Beggars – Chris Lloyd

In Paris 1940, survival means sacrifice. Like most in the city, Detective Eddie Giral has already lost so much under Occupation: the people he once loved, the job he once believed in.

And his latest investigation into the murder of a black-marketeer has made it clearer than ever: Eddie is no longer just catching criminals. He’s working for them. Because when a German trader is the next to die, the authorities decide it’s innocent civilians who will pay the price – unless Eddie can find the killer in time.

As hunger grows, tensions rise and a fierce rebellion brews, Eddie will tread a dark path between doing whatever it takes to live with the enemy… and also with himself.

My thanks to the publishers for a review copy of Banquet of Beggars which I received through Netgalley.

“collaborator”

noun

disapproving

a person who works with an enemy who has taken control of their country

Collaborator is a word Eddie Giral is hearing far too often. It is shouted at him, hissed at him and muttered about him behind his back. It is not a word which Eddie accepts. He is a Paris cop, he is doing the job he’s always done and is trying to do it to the best of his ability. But the citizens of Paris are increasingly distrustful of Eddie as it is 1940 and Paris is under German control. If Eddie is trying to enforce the law then the assumption is that he is working alongside the Germans and that makes him a collaborator with their oppressor, this means people are less likely to trust him and his ability to do his job will also be severely impacted.

An inability to gather information is a major hinderance to Eddie as his role is very much to keep his German “boss”, Major Hochstetter, informed of various aspects of criminal activity within the city. Eddie’s actual boss within the French police is Inspector Dax. Both Dax and Hochstetter have an interest in Black Market activity within Paris. As the city residents approach the second Christmas under occupation there is an increasing shortage of many types of staples and this means black market trading is rife.

Banquet of Beggars opens with Eddie, not above the law in some instances, trying to join a large queue of hopeful shoppers who have had word a supply of butter may be available. The source of the rumour (and the source of the butter) are somewhat vague and there’s real doubt any butter which does materialise will be legally obtained but Eddie’s happy to take the chance and overlook any grey legal areas. Unfortunately for Eddie his shopping is going to be interrupted by the discovery of a body but with hindsight he realises he may have moved a bit closer to gathering important information about the Paris Black Market. The body Eddie will find certainly has some connection to illegal trading – not least because someone has stuffed some butter into the corpse’s mouth. And that’s not the most unexpected thing he finds at the crime scene!

Tasked with finding more about the illegal traders in the city Eddie is frustrated to find his office space is to be shared with a new administrative assistant and also with his colleague Detective Boniface. Even during wartime and in the midst of personal drama and challenging work commitments it’s somewhat reassuring to see just how frustrated Eddie can be when having to deal with workplace disruptions and losing some of his precious desk space.

What I particularly love about Chris Lloyd’s Eddie Giral books is how Paris springs to life around the police, the soldiers and even the surly bar staff who Eddie delights in winding up. These books are not simply a crime story they are accompanied by a fascinating insight into the social history of Parisians during the 40’s. Aspects of their life are woven into the plot so we can see how they coped with rationing, increasing fear at the Gestapo’s “techniques” for gathering information, travel when there are fuel shortages and even how they choose to socialise. The depth of the world Chris Lloyd spins around his characters is an absolute treat for readers – small wonder he has won the HWA Gold Crown for Best Historical Fiction.

Eddie Giral is a man with a raft of problems. To be fair, however, many of these problems come from Eddie’s own sardonic nature and his inability to keep the inside thoughts unspoken. His personal life is in turmoil as he has to keep his relationship secret from the authorities – Germans are not accepting of black women at this time and Eddie cannot afford to have Major Hochstetter discover a potential weakness in Eddie’s life which Hochstetter could exploit. This is equally true of Eddie’s son who has fled the city and Eddie doesn’t know if his son is safe or even if he is alive.

Beggars Banquet zips along at a very enjoyable pace. Eddie’s investigations into the Black Market trading gets waylaid by the appointment of a new judge who seems intent on making an example of two foolish small-time crooks by sentencing them to death by guillotine despite a lack of any real evidence. Eddie has known the crooks (brothers) for many years and is doing his best to prove their innocence despite the judge ignoring any attempts to see justice done – it will please the Germans that action is seen to be taken. Eddie has also been asked to help secure the release of a young French protestor who got caught up in an anti-German event – this is more tricky for Eddie as she is being held by the Gestapo and Eddie will need Hochstetter’s help to secure her freedom. But Hochstetter isn’t interested in helping Eddie.

It’s a glorious sequence of dilemma, drama and a swinging shift in power dynamics. Chris Lloyd keeps many plates spinning through the whole book and just as it looks like everything will come crashing down around the ears of Eddie Giral, well perhaps something does…

Crime fiction in a wartime setting – the Eddie Giral novels should not be missed. Essential reading.

Banquet of Beggars is published by Orion and is available in hardback, digital and audiobook format. You can order a copy here: https://www.waterstones.com/book/banquet-of-beggars/chris-lloyd/9781409190356?_gl=1*9urw77*_up*MQ..*_ga*MTMxNTIwODkyMC4xNzI0NzAzMjky*_ga_P4C39TQPV3*MTcyNDcwMzI5MS4xLjEuMTcyNDcwMzUzMy4wLjAuMA..

Category: From The Bookshelf | Comments Off

February 23

Paris Requiem – Chris Lloyd

‘You have a choice which way you go in this war…’

Paris, September 1940.

After three months under Nazi Occupation, not much can shock Detective Eddie Giral. That is, until he finds a murder victim who was supposed to be in prison. Eddie knows, because he put him there. The dead man is not the first or the last criminal being let loose onto the streets. But who is pulling the strings, and why?

This question will take Eddie from jazz clubs to opera halls, from old flames to new friends, from the lights of Paris to the darkest countryside – pursued by a most troubling truth: sometimes to do the right thing, you have to join the wrong side…

My thanks to Orion for the opportunity to read an review copy of Paris Requiem

In late 202o I listened to the audiobook of The Unwanted Dead. It introduced Eddie Giral, the police officer who was determined to investigate a crime which nobody else wanted him to investigate. I absolutely loved the story, raved about it A LOT on Twitter and I was delighted to see it win the CWA Gold Crown for best novel of the year.

I have been patiently waiting for Giral’s return (well quite patiently) and when Paris Requiem landed on my doormat it went straight to the front of my reading queue. I know I shouldn’t have favourites but as much as I loved The Unwanted Dead, I think Paris Requiem takes this series to greater heights. Paris Requiem – five stars and if I could give it more I would.

What’s it about then?

Detective Eddie Giral is a member of the Paris police force. It is 1940 and the Germans have occupied the city. The police are still to enforce the law but they must do so working alongside the Germans who have their own control over the city. It’s a fractious dynamic and Eddie is far from happy with the current state of affairs. Although we first met Eddie in the award-winning The Unwanted Dead. You don’t need to read the stories in order to enjoy Paris Requiem but as I adored The Unwanted Dead I would strongly encourage you to seek it out.

We meet Eddie in a closed down Jazz Club. He is a big fan of jazz but not such a big fan of empty clubs which house a dead body. Unfortunately for Eddie the reason he is in a closed down club is because there is a dead body which needs his attention. Bound to a chair and left to be found, the victim has had their mouth sewn shut with twine. A message? But who could it be for? And an even bigger headache for Eddie is that he knows the victim…he arrested him some months earlier and the man should still be in prison – so why is he dead in a club?

Eddie’s boss, Commissionaire Dax, has paired him up with the irritating Boniface. Potentially a decent cop but Eddie feels Boniface spends more time chasing women than he does chasing crooks. Together the pair try to find out why a convicted criminal was walking the streets before he met his untimely and unpleasant death. Worse still it seems he may not be the only criminal no longer serving their sentence – some of the crooks the pair helped capture will hold a grudge too.

Unfortunately for Eddie there are other matters to contend with. His son is trying to escape France, Eddie has not seen him for several months but someone else knows of his flight to freedom and is trying to use this knowledge to get some leverage with Eddie. Will Eddie be able to assist an enemy if it means safe passage for his son? There’s another son to worry about too – not his own but an old friend is looking for Eddie to help find her son. A soldier on the run and hiding from the German army will not have it easy, but when the soldier has black skin it gets even more complicated. Even Eddie’s connections with Major Hochstetter – the German officer who “assists” Eddie and the French police will not use his influential support to track down a missing soldier.

There’s a lot going on in Eddie’s life but Chris Lloyd manages to keep three or four different story threads constantly weaving around the reader. Even when there’s not a crime to occupy his mind Eddie can be found trying to encourage his local butcher to let him have a slightly larger cut of meat or begging his baker to give him a single loaf of bread despite Eddie not having his ration book. Life in occupied Paris still goes on and Lloyd shows the day to day problems all Parisians faced – sourcing fresh meat and bread being one of them.

It’s the wonderful blend of historical fact, crime fiction and sheer reading enjoyment which made me love the time I spent with Paris Requiem. Chris Lloyd breathes life into history and has created a compelling cast of characters. The murders, the escaped criminals, Eddie’s need to appease his boss, appease the Germans and keep himself safe while unknown forces try to kill him – you will be drawn into this story and will not want to stop reading. Especially when you hear about Capeluche – he’s a scary one.

Don’t miss these books. Get to know Eddie Giral. He’s having a rough old time of it but you’ll root for him from first page to last.

Paris Requiem is available now in hardback, digital and audiobook format. You can order a copy here: https://www.waterstones.com/book/paris-requiem/chris-lloyd/9781409190301

Category: 5* Reviews, From The Bookshelf | Comments Off

March 12

Decades: Compiling the Ultimate Library with Chris Lloyd

Decades is into its third month and my Library is growing. Library? What Library?

Late last year I pondered the dilemma a librarian may face if they were asked to create a new library. They have absolutely no books, none, a blank slate. Where would you start? From here my challenge began – compile the Ulimate Library, invite guests to join me in selecting the books they feel should be added to the shelves. But we must have rules to govern this venture or we risk anarchy.

Rule 1 – Guests can pick any five books.

Rule 2 – Only one book per decade for any five consecutive decades.

That’s it. Easy! Or seemingly not as when my guests try to make their five choices I am told there can be cussing and indecision.

Today I am thrilled to be joined by Chris Lloyd. When I compiled my favourite Audiobooks of 2020 there was never a doubt in my mind that The Unwanted Dead, published by Orion, would feature. Chris tells me that the paperback of The Unwanted Dead is out on March 18th so I could think of no better guest to invite to participate in my Decades challenge this week. Before I get Chris to introduce himself I would urge you to seek out The Unwanted Dead this week and when you have finished and enjoyed that one here are some of his other books to get your teeth into: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Chris-Lloyd/e/B01GQH7Q5C?ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1&qid=1615537791&sr=8-1

Decades

My name’s Chris Lloyd and I have a tendency to go around in circles. I grew up in South Wales, where my parents moved from their native mid-Wales after more than a decade of living abroad, so when it came to my turn, I went and lived in Catalonia for twenty-four years. I lived in Girona and then Barcelona, where I taught English, worked in educational publishing, wrote guide books, almost appeared on TV three times and translated. Interspersed with this, I also lived in Bilbao and Madrid, and I spent six months as a student in Grenoble researching the French Resistance, even though I kept coming back to Catalonia. I told you I went around in circles. As yet more proof of that, I moved back to Wales a few years ago, where I live near enough to the Brecon Beacons to feel the cold, but not so close as to enjoy the scenery. But never mind that as I’m about to move with my wife to my childhood home by the sea, which we’ve been trying to do for years.

I spend part of my day translating academic texts from Catalan and Spanish and another more fun part of the day writing crime fiction. I wrote a trilogy for Canelo set in Girona, featuring Elisenda Domènech, a detective with the Mossos d’Esquadra, the Catalan police force, which is about to come out in audiobook.

The result of my lifelong fascination with resistance and collaboration in Occupied France, I now write the Eddie Giral series, set in Paris in World War Two and featuring a Paris police detective forced to come to terms with the Nazi Occupation of the city. Seeking to negotiate a path between the occupier and the occupied, Eddie struggles to retain some semblance of humanity while walking a fine line between resistance and collaboration. The first book in the series, The Unwanted Dead, published by Orion, comes out in paperback on 18 March.

You can come and say hello on Twitter at https://twitter.com/chrislloydbcn or take a look at my website at https://chrislloydauthor.com/

I want to thank Gordon for inviting me to contribute to this brilliant idea, and also for setting me the completely impossible task of finding my favourite book from each decade over five decades – I felt actual pain every time I had to eliminate a book I loved from the list to arrive at the five below. I’ve gone for the 1950s to the 1990s, and even that decision was tough. I hope you like some of my choices.

1950s – The Daughter of Time – Josephine Tey This is the perfect crime book, the Lord Reith of crime writing – it informs, educates and entertains. A story of a police detective confined to a hospital bed who decides to investigate the murder of the princes in the tower, it’s a textbook showcase of the limitless possibilities that crime fiction can offer. It not only contributed to the historical debate about the role of villain that history had assigned to Richard III, it’s also a powerful insight into character and, quite simply, a bloody good detective story

1960s – The Spy Who Came in from the Cold – John Le Carré

The lesson this book taught us is that heroes can be amoral, unpalatable people, and you don’t have to root for them any the less because of it. Le Carré changed the rules with The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, and I firmly believe we as readers and writers have been benefiting from it ever since. He made it all right for main characters to be fundamentally flawed and unlikeable – even ordinary – and for the supposed good that they are striving for to be

achieved using methods that are no less morally reprehensible than the supposed evil they are fighting against. It was a sea change in depth and understanding of character and of heroes and villains.

1970s – The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – Douglas Adams

From the very first line with its “unfashionable” end of the galaxy to Marvin the Paranoid Android with a brain the size of a small planet, The Hitchhiker’s Guide taught me that it was perfectly all right for a book to be both very intelligent and delightfully silly. In fact, the silliness is born out of the intelligence and really isn’t that silly anyway when you look close enough. Quite apart from that, it’s also a hymn to playfulness not just with story, but with language. Read this book and your view of the universe will be altered forever – in a good way.

1980s – The Name of the Rose – Umberto Eco

There are few books that can compare with The Name of the Rose when it comes to creating an unsettling atmosphere. The harshness of the setting and the description of the weather outside the confines of the monastery conjure up a sense of brooding malevolence that is both exacerbated and symbolised by one of the most bizarre casts of characters in any book. Also, I started reading it alone at night in a Spanish castle, which might not have been the best idea, but it certainly helped set the mood.

1990s – Fatherland – Robert Harris

I’m beginning and ending these decades by closing the circle with a celebration of just how far you can go with crime fiction. My favourite ‘What if…’ story, Fatherland takes place in a 1960s Berlin in a world where the Nazis won. A police detective is investigating a case that leads him to suspect a far greater crime, one that we all know with the hindsight of history but that he doesn’t. And that’s the power and brilliance of the book – to be able to take one of the most evil moments in history and reveal it once again with renewed horror as it becomes apparent to the protagonist.

My most sincere thanks to Chris for his excellent selections and for taking time to join my Decades challenge. The Unquiet Dead is released in paperback on 18th March – 1940, a Paris cop investigating murders while his city is taken under Nazi control…I don’t do it justice when I say I found it a brilliant read.

If you want to catch up on which books have already been added to my Library then you can visit it here: https://grabthisbook.net/?p=5113

Decades Will Return

Category: Guests | Comments Off