Cossacks in Paris
by Jeffrey
Perren
Cossacks in Paris is an historical fiction and romantic adventure set in the Napoleonic
era. The hero in this novel, Breutier, was inspired by a real solider who
participated in the Battle of Paris in 1814 and ended up chased by Cossacks
during the conflict.
Cossacks in Paris is celebrating the 200th anniversary of the Battle of
Paris, fought March 30-31, 1814. US readers can also enter the Goodreads giveaway for
a chance to win an autographed paperback copy (closes 20 April).
Description
How far will one man go for love and freedom?
Rebellious Breutier Armande, a rising young civil engineer in Paris, is
drafted into the Grande Armeé on the eve of Napoleon's 1812 Russian campaign.
His must carry out espionage mission in St. Petersburg, where he meets Kaarina,
a Finnish mathematician and daughter of the counselor to Tsar Alexander I.
The pair soon fall in love - but Kaarina is betrothed to Agripin, a
vicious Cossack and a favorite of the Tsar. When she refuses him, Agripin
kidnaps her, aided by Kaarina's envious twin sister, Kaisa, and a battle is set
between the two men. Breutier deserts Napoleon's army and faces prosecution for
treason. Dodging the vengeance of the world's most powerful rulers sends him on
a perilous quest to hunt down the era's most ruthless Cossack.
Interweaving the characters' personal dramas with the historical wars in
Europe of the following two years forms the core of the story. The novel
climaxes at the moment when, for the first time in 400 years, foreign armies
invaded France, leaving behind Cossacks in Paris.
Excerpt
Breutier stood
panting in a corner outside the palace, nestled between some holly bushes and a
wall just higher than his head. It was not a safe place to hide for very long,
he knew. It would take only a single guard to glance down the length of the
wall and he would unquestionably be spotted. There were many possible hiding
spots around the grounds, but between the nighttime weather and lack of water
he wouldn't last long. He had to assume orders had been given not to let him
pass any gate, and he couldn't possibly scale the surrounding wall.
He looked around,
hot for an escape route.
Then his view landed
on a pipe running up a wall to the third floor. He estimated it to be about
twenty meters further from where he thought the library was. From the design,
he guessed it was of French design. Engineers from Europe had been working in
Russia for over a hundred years, but this pipe was new. Obviously, someone had
installed indoor plumbing recently in at least one part of the palace. And he
had a hunch who had suggested it. He used the pipe to climb the wall.
The moisture on the
pipe made the climb difficult, but he had good toe holds from the wall brick.
Now all he had to do was make it all the way up without being spotted from
below. He had reached the second floor when on his periphery he noticed a guard
rounding the corner. Fortunately, the man hadn't thought to look up to find
him. Yet.
Breutier's muscles
strained to hold his position while the guard sauntered away. When he rounded
the other corner, Breutier scrambled the rest of the way up like a panther
after a doe.
At the third floor
he raised a leg sideways and just managed to get his boot's toe onto the
parapet of the balcony. He wouldn't be able to hold on to the pipe and slide
the other foot onto the base. All he could do was push off and hope to generate
enough lateral momentum to reach.
He had to avoid
going too far, since jumping off the low wall onto the balcony floor would
alert anyone on the other side of the French windows. But if he didn't push
hard enough, he'd tumble down the three stories to the stone below.
He took a deep
breath and shoved as hard as he dared. It proved more than enough to get him
onto the parapet, but too hard to prevent him falling onto the balcony floor.
To soften the noise he tucked his head and rolled over onto his back.
It hadn't been soft
enough. He could see a figure behind the thin curtains move toward him. He had
nowhere to hide. The tall glass doors covered the entire width of the balcony.
Kaarina opened the
doors as Breutier backed against the balcony rails, whipping his head left and
right to seek an escape. He had no way of knowing of her attempt to block
Agripin. She was Finnish and, so far as he knew, loyal to its ruling Russian
regime. He spun around and looked over at the pipe, debating whether to jump
for it.
"Desya, come
inside, quick!" she whispered harshly.
He spun back and
looked at her eyes, gray now in the fading evening light. Only the candlelight
from inside illuminated the gold streaks. But he could see well enough to make
out the smile beneath the concerned expression in her eyes. He moved away from
the balcony's edge and into the room as she backed away from the door frame.
"My name is not
Desya," he said in a normal tone of voice in French. "It's Breutier.
I'm an engineer in Napoleon's army."
Reviews
"If you read in bed, you might be up all night." ~ Frank
Schulwolf, Amazon
"Sit back and strap yourself in for a riotous, rollicking ride following
appealing heroes, heroines and villains across war-torn Napoleonic
Europe." ~ Peter Cresswell, Not PC
“History buffs will enjoy the setting in Napoleonic Europe. The scenes
from Russia to France were well-selected and well-written thus giving a realistic
picture of the times. Romanticists will enjoy the plot. Two men are chasing
after one woman. Emotions and rivalry are tense. The plot is masterfully
constructed.” ~ John Christmas, author of Democracy
Society
"Perren's economical style moves one quickly from page-to-page while
leaving little for interpretation, and everything to purposeful conquest. The
reader is driven by one overriding question: will a man's passionate pursuit of
a woman prove more powerful than a ruler's quest for an empire?" ~ Michael
Moeller, The Atlasphere
About the Author
Jeffrey Perren wrote his first short story at age 12 and went on to win
the Bank of America Fine Arts award at 17. Since then he has published at
award-winning sites and magazines from the US to New Zealand. He is the author
of Cossacks In Paris, an historical war novel set in the Napoleonic era, the romantic travel
mystery Death Is Overrated, and his latest release Clonmac's Bridge.
Jeffrey states: "My writing 'motto' is the same as that of my
publisher, ClioStory Publishing: 'Stories the way they used to be.' I strive to
write straightforward prose that offers the reader an engrossing story that
will hold them every page to the end. I offer characters that reflect values
from times past - or perhaps the future: integrity, heroic achievements, and an
unflagging sense of right and wrong."
Educated in philosophy and physics at UCLA and UC Irvine, Jeffrey lives
in Sandpoint, Idaho.
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