For the King retells the assassination attempt on Napoleon Bonaparte using a homemade bomb in the streets of Paris. Though Napoleon escaped unscathed, many others were killed or permanently maimed. I enjoyed the historical aspect of this novel, in addition to the assassination attempt we are informed about the political atmosphere of the time and learn just how easily an innocent person could be sent to the guillotine. I give it only 2 stars though because the drama, romance, and suspense that I had been expecting were largely missing. You know from page 1 (even if you didn't know your history already) who the assassins were, where they were staying, and who they were working with. That made following Roch, our hero Chief Inspector, a little anticlimatic. It was too easy to predict who the female co-conspiritor was before it was spelled right out for us. And the sex scenes (thankfully they are few) were just weird and I could have done without them altogether. I had already purchased Delors other novel, Mistress of the Revolution, before reading this one, so I hope it is better. If you're looking for French historical fiction, you may want to stick to Dumas.
