Sunday Salon: Jerry Labriola, The Strange Death of Napoleon Bonaparte

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Since the Sunday Salon began however many weeks ago, I've managed to read a fair number of books, but I'd fallen woefully behind in reading Newsweek and The Week. This week I've finally caught up in those--which is to say that I'm currently reading the current week's editions of both. On the other hand, I've just finished only my second book of December. Sigh....

But this afternoon I finally managed to finish up a book that I've been enmeshed in for a while. Just posted a review at book-blog.com, whither I direct interested parties. Here's the start of it:

Strong Books © 2008, 340 pages

In his didactic novel The Strange Death of Napoleon Bonaparte, Jerry Labriola tells the unlikely story of a (soon to be ex-) Yale history professor, Paul D'Arneau, who is approached by an enigmatic private organization interested in hiring him to investigate the death of Napoloeon: did the Emperor die of natural causes, or was he murdered? The group's offer is more than generous, a six-figure sum in payment for Paul's investigations, with all expenses paid, and the potential for a million-dollar bonus should he uncover something definitive. Paul accepts the job and spends all of two weeks on the investigation, a whirlwind of travel to Paris, Elba, and St. Helena. He meets with the various members of the group that has engaged him and, per their instructions and with their help (so that one wonders why they needed to hire him at all), he talks to a bunch of "histarians"--a loose confederation of amateur historians who are privy to historical information they refuse for some reason to divulge by phone. There is some element that doesn't want Paul to dig into Napoleon's death, so that his trip is not without its dangers. Still, Paul uncovers the truth in the end. It is hard to believe that anyone would conduct a scholarly investigation in the manner here described, but one can't argue with results.

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