Hav­ing long since recoiled from the dan­gers of dab­bling in left wing pol­i­tics, Fran­cois Dubon opt­ed for tak­ing over his father’s sedate but lucra­tive law prac­tice, mar­ry­ing a beau­ti­ful mem­ber of the aris­toc­ra­cy and enjoy­ing after­noon delight with his mis­tress. What­ev­er polit­i­cal and social upheaval might have exist­ed in Parisian soci­ety in the late 19th cen­tu­ry tend­ed to have lit­tle impact on his care­ful­ly tend­ed exis­tence.
All was calm until a love­ly young wid­ow appeared in his office urg­ing him to uncov­er new evi­dence that might free Cap­tain Alfred Drey­fus, who had been found guilty of trea­son two years pre­vi­ous­ly. Before long, the ini­tial­ly reluc­tant Dubon found him­self ​“bor­row­ing” his brother’s mil­i­tary uni­form and mis­rep­re­sent­ing his iden­ti­ty to gain access to the gov­ern­ment files that might con­tain proof that Drey­fus had been framed.
 Even know­ing that the real Cap­tain Drey­fus was even­tu­al­ly par­doned does not quell the build­ing sus­pense in this work of his­tor­i­cal fic­tion. Will Dubon be the one to crack the case and will the well tend­ed veneer he cre­at­ed for his priv­i­leged life frac­ture in the process? Kate Tay­lor has craft­ed a sparkling gem of a nov­el that makes it well worth the effort to find out.