Alexis Ragougneau

Entertaining little crime story, set in the crowded, convoluted edifice of my favorite building on earth. The author worked in visitor management at the cathedral, so is happy to show off his knowledge of its private staircases, wings, and chambers most of us will never see. One protagonist, Father Kern, is an ailing little priest, beset by flares of bodily pain that have stunted him since childhood (the medical me is guessing Still's disease?), who sets out to understand who was behind the bizarre death of a pretty young woman dressed in white. The plot is nothing special, with a requisite red herring, and a somewhat predictable villain and conclusion, revealed all at once to the sympathetic young policeman Gombrowicz. Read this one for Paris, for Notre Dame, for Father Kern's earnest travails, for a comfortable evening or two.… (more)

4.5 stars

I don't really know why I liked The Madonna of Notre Dame, by Alexis Ragougneau, as much as I did. On its face, it is a short murder mystery, written well (but not spectacularly so) and featuring as its protagonist priest-turned-amateur-detective Father François Kern, one of several priests who serve at Paris's famed Cathedral of Notre Dame. Been done, you say, and of course library shelves abound with such men, although they are usually found in England. Father Kern is neither particularly clever (I identified the killer long before he did, although the motivation was a bit of a surprise) nor particularly smart (he could have easily avoided a dangerous encounter with the murderer if he had just thought about the situation for 30 seconds). He has no police sidekick à la James Runcie's vicar Sidney Chambers and Detective Inspector Geordie Keating, and Notre Dame isn't even "his" church in the sense that Sidney Chambers presides over Grantchester or Reverend Nick Lawrence oversees Lakehurst.

I think this last point may reveal what is special about Father Kern and The Madonna of Notre Dame. Father Kern isn't "important"; he is simply one of the many players in the pageant which is Notre Dame. While he ultimately solves the mystery, many others play significant roles, including a security guard, the sacristan, and even a couple of regular visitors to the cathedral. It is this sense of the drama of little people's lives playing out against the grandeur of a national treasure which paints Father Kern in such stark relief and gives this stunted, pain-ridden man such presence on the page.

This review was based on a free ARC provided by the publisher.… (more)