Huguette
-
-
3.4 • 5 Ratings
-
-
- $14.99
Publisher Description
In the lawlessness of post–World War II France, a resilient young woman fights to survive and make a living, no matter the cost—from the New York Times bestselling author of Three Hours in Paris and the Aimée Leduc series
After Libération, spring 1945: Seventeen-year-old Huguette Faure is a survivor. The war has taken everything from her—both her parents and her sense of safety. Now, pregnant and on the lam, she cannot return to her childhood home in Paris. Forced to reinvent herself, she must outrun her father’s enemies, who want her dead. After narrowly avoiding jail time—thanks to the help of a kindhearted police officer named Claude Leduc—Huguette lands a job assisting a legendary film director. As her role develops from helping him with chores to cooking his books, she sees an opportunity to break free from the ghosts of her past once and for all.
In this big-hearted story of resilience, New York Times bestselling author Cara Black offers a wholly original depiction of postwar France as well as introduces Claude Leduc—the man who decades later inspired his granddaughter, Aimée, to become a private investigator.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this vivid standalone from Black (Murder at La Villette), a traumatized teenager reinvents herself in post-WWII Paris. Huguette endures a string of heartrending betrayals, beginning with her father pimping her out to a Nazi officer in exchange for protection for his shop during the war. Then, at 17, the orphaned young woman has become pregnant after being assaulted by a Nazi officer and is forced by cruel nuns to give her child up for adoption. Devastated, starving, and homeless, Huguette lands in prison for stealing money in 1945, where she's helped by the kind but unproven young policeman Claude Leduc (grandfather to Aimée Leduc, the heroine of Black's long-running detective series). After fleeing and changing her identity, Huguette works for strong-willed film director Louis de Jouvenal, who hires her to help trade supplies on the black market. After outwitting American GIs, corrupt French police, and vicious gang members, Huguette finally finds legitimate employment and tracks down the German officer who raped her. At times, Black's plot tilts into melodrama, but her pacing is fleet and she renders the textures and social mores of postwar Paris with aplomb. Historical mystery fans will root for Huguette all the way to the novel's bittersweet end.
