Review by Anne Carlisle
DUVAL AND THE INFERNAL MACHINE by Michele McGrath
A Fast  Five Star Read!

I became an instant fan of Michele McGrath when I gobbled this book at one sitting. It is a historical romance blended with suspenseful  police action set in post-Revolutionary France, and  a thumping good read! It would make a terrific movie. All the characters are multi-dimensional, even the cameos, such as the feared Minister of Police, a Jacobin regicide.  I'm totally hooked  by the unassuming hero and first person narrator, an injured French soldier returning from service in Germany with only a letter of reference to secure his future.  Alain Duval's mother is dead and  he is estranged from his father. Duval longs to  be away from  the  violence and putrid smell of Paris, but  because of a connection, he gains a position as  a Ministry agent,  a job he manages with courage, common sense, and generosity. He soon finds himself at the center of a high-profile  case. The Infernal Machine, which is how Parisians describe the primitive bomb that barely missed killing Napoleon en-route to the Opera, has left few traces, which are the focus of  a carefully executed hunt.  The pace escalates into nail-biting action and a deadly confrontation, followed by the enticing  prospect of  romance for our hero . Meanwhile, as Duval's efforts  bring him closer to rounding up all the ringleaders in the Royalist plot, a friend  is turning out to be different from how he appeared.   New adventures unfold. Michele McGrath knows how to tell a great story, from beginning to end!

https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/10456095-anne-carlisle