The Paris Affair by Maureen Marshall

Late 19th-century Paris is a place of innovation and wonder. For engineer Fin Tighe, it is also a refuge, a city where he can forget his difficult youth in England and the remnants of his unhappy family that he left behind. Instead, he can focus not only on his beloved young cousin Aurélie, but also on his intellectual passions and his career. He is secretly thrilled to be able to work directly under the famous engineer Gustave Eiffel as they build the latter’s eponymous tower.

Unfortunately, there was a setback in financing. Although the plans were approved and the government provided money for construction, public outcry against the building by Parisians led concerned – some would even say timid – politicians to withhold payment. Undaunted, Eiffel has offered an unprecedented return to any investors willing to make up the shortfall.

Although Fin himself is on the verge of bankruptcy, he firmly believes in the project. Not only has he invested a modest share himself, but he has also begun to offer the investment to his wealthier acquaintances – for a modest commission, of course. One of these acquaintances, the dashing department store heir Gilbert Duhais, is skeptical but open to persuasion and says to Fin:

“Then make it exciting for me too.”

“It’s not just an art installation – this tower is by far the boldest feat of engineering the world has ever seen.”

His skepticism prompted me to find a way to convince him. “The mathematical precision required – hundreds of thousands of joints and angles measured to the tenth of a millimeter -” I sat back for a moment, overwhelmed. “Not even the Romans, at the height of their arrogance, would have dared to do something like that.”

He raised an eyebrow sarcastically. “Well, it’s a terribly complexugly, big work of art?”

Normally I would have given up at this point, not wanting to transfer my enthusiasm to a belligerent listener. But here there was a challenge.

Gilbert’s interest in the tower, and soon in Fin, takes the engineer into a glittering social circle he’s never entered before. As their friendship opens doors, Gilbert convinces Fin to lean on the family name he once rejected to continue securing the financing Eiffel needs. But as Gilbert and Fin’s relationship deepens, Fin can’t help but wonder why Gilbert is so insistent on letting him flirt with disaster – and legal danger – to attract more and more investors. When one of his friends is brutally murdered, Fin is forced to take a close look at this man he has grown fond of. Who is Gilbert Duhais really, and what is he really capable of?

The splendour of Belle Epoque Paris is on dazzling display in this strange historical crime thriller, as Fin attempts to build an independent life for himself while also trying to cope with the unfair legal burdens placed on him not only by the sinister circumstances of his birth, but also by his sexuality. Having long ago given up on love for the sake of survival, the only pure joy in his life is his relationship with Aurélie. But not even he can protect her from everything, and certainly not from the demands of her chosen career in ballet:

After (the star ballerina) had dressed up, there came the dancers who had done solos – each of which was only earned after the dancer had paid for extra hours – and it was a rare guttersweet who could afford it out of her own bank account. And then finally the members of the lower corps, like my beautiful Aurélie.

A dancer like her, dependent on me and my meager wages, had only one way to prove her ability: to sell herself to a subscriber who would pay for the lessons, a decision none of us could consider.

And yet, no matter how risky it was, Aurélie refused to be persuaded to choose another profession. Ballet was her passion.

Presents both the magnificent and the profane, The Paris Affair shows the lengths many had to go to survive in late 19th century Europe. While English laws against homosexuality were draconian, a loophole in the Napoleonic Code allowed gay men and trans women to live a relative, if still vulnerable, life, making Paris a haven for the persecuted. Fin is so happy to have escaped England that he doesn’t want to add fuel to the fire by trying to live a life of hiding, not to mention the fact that he’s a paragon of virtue compared to many people around him. His journey to uncover the truth not only about his family but also about a series of murders plaguing Paris – even if it relies a little too much on telling rather than showing in the final third – is an inspiring read as he confronts his own identity and learns to fully own who he really wants to be.

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