Why am I passionate about this?
I grew up in the ā60s and ā70s watching Alfred Hitchcock movies and reading Dashiell HammettāIām from San Francisco. Then opera got hold of me. So, I dropped out of my PhD program, left Danteās Inferno behind, and moved to Paris to live a modern-day La BohĆØme. Because Iām half-Italian, I decided I had to divide my life between Paris and Italy. Mystery, murder, romance, longing, and betrayal were what fueled my passions and still do. To earn a living, I became a travel, food, and arts reporter. These interests and the locales of my life come together in my own crime and mystery novels.
David's book list on crime novels that double as travel books
Why did David love this book?
Do you want the gritty, pungent beauty of Paris during the heyday of the Romanticsāthe 1830s? You want perversion, decadence, a crazy, kinky plot revolving around sex, dominance, Sapphic passion, murder, and intrigue, set in the Trocadero neighborhood? Only HonorĆ© de Balzac could dream up something this wild and get away with it. One of the wonders of this short novel is how, through casual descriptions, Paris comes to life. Itās not a picture-postcard version of the city. Au contraire. Itās a seamy, real place I recognize after 35 years living there. While I was reading The Girl with the Golden Eyes, I actually went out and found the locations. The city has changed less than youād think in 190 years. Above all, the seamy, perverse side remains.
1 author picked The Girl with the Golden Eyes as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.
Beginning with a visceral description of the society and politics of Paris, The Girl with the Golden Eyes considers the sex life of the upper class by its raw depiction of the underside of Parisian life. Henri de Marsay is a young, rich man who is nearly devoid of morals and virtue. After he meets Paquita Valdes, a mysterious and beautiful woman, he becomes infested with a deviant lust for her. When his plan to seduce her succeeds, Henri and Paquita maintain an intensely sexual relationship. However, when Henri starts to suspect Paquita is involved with another lover, he becomesā¦