Books like The Black Tower by Louis Bayard

In 1818 Paris, the formidable detective Eugène François Vidocq leads a newly formed plainclothes police force. When a medical student named Hector Carpentier’s name appears on a murder victim’s scrap of paper, Vidocq suspects his involvement but soon realizes the case is far more complex. The investigation uncovers a decades‑old intrigue surrounding the doomed dauphin Louis‑Charles, son of Marie‑Antoinette and Louis XVI. Official records claim the young heir died in Paris’s dreaded Temple, a “black tower,” yet rumors persist he may have escaped. As Vidocq and Hector follow a trail of misinformation, a forgotten diary and a man suffering from amnesia suggest the boy may have survived. Their pursuit forces them to confront buried conspiracies, risking everything for truth and justice amid a turbulent restoration era.

First publish date: 2008