Red Stag: A Novel

Red Stag: A Novel

ReviewIn Praise of For a Handful of Feathers:"Beautifully written and conceived..." --Kirkus ReviewsIn Praise of For a Handful of Feathers:"...a splendid and compelling book ..." --Jim HarrisonSet in Normandy, France, in the 1960s, RED STAG is a lush, rich novel. Nineteen-year-old bastard Vincent has just returned from boarding school to work on the Count's estate, where his uncle is gamekeeper, where Vincent himself was raised, where his mother, until her early death, was the Countess's maid. Shortly after his return, his uncle is viciously murdered. Vincent vows revenge.It is also deer hunting season, and the village is wild with anticipation about this year's ritualized Royal Hunt for the giant red stag. This red stag defies all hunters, outsmarting them, and then outrunning their horses and hounds.The Count's daughter, Nicole, returns to the estate as well. She, too, is nineteen These childhood friends haven't seen each other in years. As the search for the murderer's identity intensifies, and the Royal Hunt approaches, Nicole and Vincent find themselves inexorably drawn to each other. The three-pronged plot gains momentum, reaching a thrilling, violent, graphic conclusion, which reveals startling truths about Vincent's patronage and the potential for both extreme cruelty and friendship within the human heart.RED STAG is wonderfully atmospheric and exotic, full of rich descriptions of wildlife and the rivers and woods of Normandy. It is beautifully written, near cinematic in its clarity, highly suspenseful, and utterly unforgettable.From Publishers WeeklyThe lush fields and woods of Normandy during the 1960s and '70s are the setting for this coming-of-age novel and revenge drama, a debut with the feel of a 19th-century novel. Vincent, the illegitimate child of a maid, grows up on the estate of the Count and Countess of Costebelle. He develops a close relationship with his uncle Serge, the gamekeeper, and after he graduates from boarding school, works for a summer pitching hay and cutting firewood on the estate. That same summer, Serge is brutally murdered, presumably by poachers hunting the prized red stag that roams the grounds. The count promotes Vincent to take Serge's place, and Vincent vows revenge on the poachers, but he is pulled in a different direction when the count's daughter, Nicole, returns from Paris; sparks fly as she and Vincent rekindle their childhood friendship. De la Valdene's descriptions of the Norman forests and wildlife are rich and graceful, and he expertly captures the shades of difference between the privileged life of the aristocracy, town life and Vincent's sheltered existence. As the novel reaches its autumnal climax, the local hunt club sets out after the red stag, Serge's killers are finally identified and the count provides Vincent with shocking information about his paternity. No amount of lush scene setting can disguise the creakiness of De la Valdene's anachronistic, melodramatic storytelling, but the vivid hunting tableaus provide some recompense for the turgid plotting.Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.From the Back CoverRed Stag is a tantalizing love story and a coming of age novel set against the backdrop of a lush estate in Normandy, France, in the 1960s. It is a novel of desire, of murder, and of chilling revenge.Vincent, a boy who has grown up in the shadow of a Count's estate, has just turned nineteen. As the son of the Countess's maid, his childhood was one of ambiguous privilege. But his father's identity remains a mystery, and the villagers shun and fear him for his questionable heritage. As the novel opens, Vincent has just returned from his last year of boarding school for the summer, when his uncle, the estate's gamekeeper, is brutally murdered. Vincent vows revenge, and along with his best friend sets out to find the murderers. Meanwhile, the village is in a state of agitation, anticipating the opening day of the