It is two days before Christmas 1933 and the Paris-Strasbourg express train crashes into a slow train. Amidst the devastation, a young man grabs a suitcase and swaps his wallet with a fellow victim. He is Gilles, a petty criminal, and he is taken to the house of Rosa Lagarde in the guise of her husband. Meanwhile in Paris, his sister Camille sits at the bedside of a young man with her brother's papers, trying to find out what has happened.
I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this book as it comes across as a fairly generic historical novel. However I really liked the class aspects and the thriller parts are well written. It also taps into the obsession with Egyptian artefacts which forms a huge part of the plot. It's definitely an exciting read. ( )