I kept being put in mind of the Jan. 6 assault on the U.S. Capitol and the different political spins that have been put on it as I read L.M. Twist’s “Louis Mie and the Trial of Hautefaye,” in which a horrific mob action in a village in 1870 France is similarly viewed through different lenses at a time of great national divisiveness.
Whether the mob acted spontaneously or was incited by a Prussian agent was the question for officials about the French incident, just as whether the U.S. Capitol attack was simply a legitimate expression of political discontent or an attempted coup was the question in the U.S. incident, with those of the former view even pointing to a person in the crowd they claimed was a government plant even though it was later pretty well established that he was in fact just another protester and not acting out of any further nefarious intent.
Even less guilty of any nefarious intent, indeed so free of any underlying motive as to have been planning to join France’s fight against Prussia forthwith, is the unfortunate victim in Twist’s novel, Alain de Moneys, who is in the village simply to pay off a bill and, if lucky, get in some time with a woman he's smitten with. But a simple political misunderstanding with some patrons at the bar where she works riles them enough that he ends up being tortured and burned to death.
Such is how high tensions were running at a time when France was under siege by Prussia and Napoleon III had been captured and a new government was making for intense division between those loyal to Napoleon, which included many of the villagers, and those given to the new Republic, which included the lawyer pressed into defending one of those accused in the mob action.
Indeed, so dedicated is he to the republican cause that he is rebuked by an old friend who, although similarly inclined, is put off enough by the degree of his friend’s passion that the friendship becomes considerably strained. As does the lawyer’s marriage, where his wife over the years has come to feel more and more neglected and particularly so now, with the mob case.
All of which gives just a taste of a very complicated story, all the more so for American readers unfamiliar with French history, and indeed I’ve purposely refrained from being too detailed about the novel not just out of fear of revealing too much but also out of fear that I’ll get something wrong. But it’s to author Twist’s credit that he manages to make things as clear as could reasonably be expected, although I think with the complexity of the historical period some sort of explanatory note or chronology at the beginning of the novel (there is explanatory matter at the very end) would have been in order. Still, the novel acquits itself well in its depiction of a particular time and place, and, in the way of good historical fiction, makes for an entertaining, non-sleep-inducing way to learn complex history.

In 19th Century France, fear gripped the citizens of a fractured country by the Franco-Prussian War where accusations of espionage ran rampant with mobs ready to kill. Based on true events, L.M. Twist masterfully blends reality with fiction into a fast-paced political/legal drama that shows the fear of enemies near. I've not read a lot of legal drama fiction, but Louis Mie and the Trial of Hautefaye has me wanting to read more if they're like this.

Overall, Louis Mie and the Trial of Hautefaye was an interesting read melding history and fiction perfectly. This is a must-read for anyone who loves legal dramas (both literature and TV/film) or wants to learn about a moment in history.

Thank you, NetGalley and BooksGoSocial for an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This was an interesting read. I appreciate the author‘s work to convey 19th century France. I did wonder whether it was translated from French. The story was interesting and I appreciated the blend of history and fiction.