Banquet of Beggars: From the Winner of the HWA Gold Crown for Best Historical Fiction

Eddie Giral #3

by Chris Lloyd

THE BRAND NEW NOVEL IN THE AWARD-WINNING OCCUPATION SERIES, FEATURING DETECTIVE EDDIE GIRAL

In Paris 1940, survival means sacrifice. Like most in the city, Detective Eddie Giral has already lost so much under the people he once loved, the job he once believed in.

And his latest investigation into the murder of a black-marketeer has made it clearer than Eddie is no longer just catching criminals. He's working for them. Because when a German trader is the next to die, the authorities decide it's innocent civilians who will pay the price - unless Eddie can find the killer in time.

As hunger grows, tensions rise and a fierce rebellion brews, Eddie will tread a dark path between doing whatever it takes to live with the enemy... and also with himself.

*****

PRAISE FOR CHRIS LLOYD'S OCCUPATION

'Ranks alongside Alan Furst and Philip Kerr ... Powerful stuff' SUNDAY TIMES

'A thoughtful, haunting thriller' MICK HERRON

'Such a powerful and morally nuanced crime novel. Both a gripping murder mystery and a vivid recreation of Paris under German Occupation' ANDREW TAYLOR

'It's up there with luminaries such as Philip Kerr, Sebastian Faulks and Manda Scott - in fact, it's probably better than all of those' DAVID YOUNG

'A haunting and eye-opening portrayal of life under occupation' ADELE PARKS

'Lloyd does a masterly job of conjuring a hungry, defeated Paris. Eddie is a convincing protagonist; a flawed man trying his best to be a good one' THE TIMES

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, France, World War II

452 pages, Kindle Edition

Published August 15, 2024

About the author

After graduating in Spanish and French, I lived in Catalonia, where I worked in educational publishing and as a travel writer and translator. I’ve also lived in Grenoble, researching the French Resistance movement.

The result of my lifelong interest in World War 2 and resistance and collaboration in Occupied France, The Unwanted Dead (Orion) is my first novel set in Paris, featuring Detective Eddie Giral. I’m also the author of the Elisenda Domènech crime series (Canelo), featuring a police officer with the newly-devolved Catalan police force.

Reviews

[Maureen · Rating 5 out of 5]

*4.5 stars*

In the Second World War Germans forced relocation of the French government from Paris to Vichy on the 10th of June 1940. It marked the beginning of the German Occupation in Paris effective as of 14th of June, 1940.

It’s here that we meet Detective Eddie Giral, who like the rest of the inhabitants of Paris have lost the life that they took for granted.

Eddie is investigating the murder of a black-marketeer, but when a German trader is the next to die, the authorities decide it's innocent civilians who will pay the price - unless Eddie can find the killer in time.
As food rationing, and lack of coal and electricity begins to impact the people, sheer hunger forces them into rebellion. Eddie though is forced into appeasing the Occupiers and thereby not only saving the lives of civilians, but also himself.

The hardship of the French people is in stark contrast to the life of plenty for the German Occupiers. Eddie Giral, who has nothing but contempt for those Occupiers, and doesn’t hold back on his feelings either, brings much humour to an otherwise grim period in history, and he gets himself into a whole load of trouble while he’s at it! Well researched, well written, and highly recommended.

*Thank you to Netgalley and Orion Publishing Group for an ARC in exchange for an honest unbiased review *

[Paula · Rating 5 out of 5]

An outstanding series. Set in a complex time and place, where moral choices are made every minute, it brings separate threads together brilliantly. Exceptional characters.

[Grumpy Old Books · Rating 5 out of 5]

Friday, May 2, 2025

Banquet of Beggars by Chris Lloyd

 






Our Rating 5⭐s

You can buy Banquet of Beggars...Here

You can find out about the author...Here


The Blurb...

In Paris 1940, survival means sacrifice. Like most in the city, Detective Eddie Giral has already lost so much under Occupation: the people he once loved, the job he once believed in.

And his latest investigation into the murder of a black-marketeer has made it clearer than ever: Eddie is no longer just catching criminals. He's working for them. Because when a German trader is the next to die, the authorities decide it's innocent civilians who will pay the price - unless Eddie can find the killer in time.

As hunger grows, tensions rise and a fierce rebellion brews, Eddie will tread a dark path between doing whatever it takes to live with the enemy... and also with himself.


Our Review...

This is the third in Chris Lloyd's "Occupation series" following The Unwanted Dead and Paris Requiem. Reviews for these two novels can also be found on this blog. All feature the anti hero Eddie who I have previously labelled "a tough, vulnerable, relentless, thug of an honest cop." And yes he is still all those things and yes he is still played by a French Bob Hoskins in my head. 

I am running out of superlatives for this series. I religiously follow only 2 series of books and the Occupation series is the only I have given 5 stars for every review.

Again its a murder mystery set in occupied Paris in 1940/41, but this time the investigation follows the murder of a local black marketeer who has been profiting at the misery of the starving citizens of Paris. Later another murder is committed linked to the Black Market. There are numerous plot twists and turns before Eddie can work out who the killers are. If the whodunnit plot were to be lifted from this novel and placed in a modern setting then it would still be a very good if not excellent mystery but the absolute beauty (and genius) of this book and the others is the setting.

Eddie is a good cop with a good heart but he is a bad man. . His situation is finely balanced like an elephant on a see saw. The crooks hate him because he is a cop, the citizens hate him because they think he is a collaborator, The Wehrmacht hate him because he may be resistance and the Gestapo hate him because well just because he's not a Nazi. The old joke springs to mind... It's not paranoia, if they really are out to get you, and the situation he finds himself in is akin to a paranoid's fever dream.

I feel I must give special mention to the first chapter mini spoiler alert coming. but not really a big one as its only about the first chapter. Act 1 Scene 1 Eddie wakes up in a sweaty underground room, parched and exhausted. he licks moisture of the walls Immediately the reader thinks prison cell. As the scene unfolds french people are encamped with him, the reader switches to thinking air raid shelter. Eventually it becomes clear the reason why he is there is something very different. The author cunningly guides us through this mini mystery tour with just descriptions of thoughts and feelings till you get a feeling of waking up somewhere where you cant remember from the night before. It's a very carefully thought out false trail, he intentionally gives us mental breadcrumbs to follow to lead us into the  assumptions of "Oh he is in a prison cell." quickly followed by "Oh he is in an air raid shelter." The author knows what he is doing in planting the thoughts in our minds. False trails., obfuscation and frustration, he sets the tone right at the start of the book Wonderful example of an opening chapter.

Again the authors research is amazing. Actual dates, timings, events, processes, of occupied Paris, these are the things that he is good at. These are our black and white lines and the colour is added through Eddie and his emotions and thoughts through out his adventures. It is every bit a spellbinding mixture as Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall, it's just that the era and country are different.

 The feeling of oppression and never ending stress living under the constant pressure of an institutionally psychopathic regime makes for a teeth clenching, heart pounding read. I have mentioned before how Eddie is like a 1920s LA noir detective but thrust into an alien backdrop of occupied Paris. The narrative also reminds of Orwell's authoritarian hell-scape of 1894. The terror of saying the wrong thing, of thinking the wrong thing, of being the wrong colour or just being in the wrong place. How could you conduct an honest murder investigation in this world. An Eddie type would be your only hope.

Of course occupied 1940s Paris, or Orwell's 1984 aren't the only fascist games in town. Trump's USA is coming to the boil and it is terrifying. I'm off to buy some guinea pigs ready for the incoming world collapse and subsequent right wing terror.  Oh guinea pigs? You'll have to read Banquet for Beggars. I promise you will never look at a guinea-pig in the same way again.

Another great book in a great series.

[Peter Fleming · Rating 5 out of 5]

The occupation forces are now making their presence felt, there is rationing, barely enough to survive on, and availability is poor so every where there are queues for the basics. Where just the rumour of some butter being for sale has people waiting all night before the shop opens. At the same time produce is being taken to feed the occupying forces and civilians back in the Fatherland. All part of the highly inflated costs of the occupation and assets are being stripped, given a veneer of legitimacy as purchases at an official exchange rate that values the franc alarmingly low. France is being stripped of its wealth and culture and Parisians are becoming angry. It is also fomenting a thriving black market which is resented but used because people still need to find enough to eat.

The investigation into the murder of one of these black marketeers opens Eddie Giral’s eyes to life in the city around him. This is no place for a man of integrity as he tries to solve the case without upsetting the new status quo, somehow, he must continue to work with the Germans and bide his time. When a German trader is killed, grave repercussions are promised with innocent civilians threatened with execution unless Eddie can find the killer quickly. He faces a race against time to prevent further blood on his hands.

There is no festive cheer in this novel, the author does a magnificent job of capturing the unremitting grimness of living under German occupation. This is a novel that gets the reader thinking about what life was like in Paris, something often glossed over in fiction. It is so evocative that at times as you read this you think you could almost reach out and touch the next person in the queue. All the while though it remains grippingly entertaining.

The morality of war is always something fascinating when looked at through a lens of detachment and hindsight. Black markets are essentially bad and a magnet for criminal activity, but they always crop up where supplies are limited, and restrictions are in place. These are not touted tickets or knock off cigarettes sold in a pub, but essential foodstuffs needed just to live. That the just the prospect of butter being available can cause a near riot. Then there is the grey market where folk sell off any surplus they may have, illegal but surely a much lesser crime. Eddie becomes exasperated as he is tutored on what is and isn’t acceptable, something not straightforward for somebody who is meant to uphold the law.

The second consideration is execution. Criminals were executed, some prisoners of war were (though they shouldn’t have been) but here a line is crossed by the execution of innocent civilians. Something of a precursor to what was to come in the East but also to escalate in severity until the end of the war. Used in the occupied territories as a way of preventing partisans and resistance groups being supported, a way of turning communities against them. It is easy to say that they could have done more, but when faced with reprisals of thirty innocents killed for every soldier the resistance fighter has a difficult choice to make. For Eddie the message is clear that they must bide their time and bottle up the anger, their day will come.

Eddie is a compelling character and the scenes he shares with Major Hochstetter of the Abwehr are fabulous. Part arm-wrestle, part chess match as each man battles for supremacy against a background where secrets were something to be traded. Hochstetter is a man Eddie must get on with for the sake of Paris’ citizens and just to keep the Schutzstaffel (SS) at bay, but that doesn’t mean he has to like him.

Eddie’s suicidal thoughts may have abated, but the women of his life are giving him plenty of headaches. His ex-wife wants him to locate his son and is African mistress wants more from their relationship, to add to his troubles.

It is not just the city that is so well captured, but the plot cleverly weaves its way around real people and events that fix it within time and give it the authentic feel, with Eddie somehow on the periphery. The story is simple enough, but it is these extra events that wind themselves through the plot to bring depth and substance to it. This is not an investigation in a vacuum so German officers, communists and the resistance all play a part as Eddie tries to make sense of a background that increasingly makes no sense from what they had before.

Life may be hard and grim, but the author still manages to inject a little humour, albeit coal shed dark. The graffito of the streets, butter as a weapon and a South American delicacy all figure as Eddie cynically quips his way around Paris.

[Martin Paul · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another stark and hard hitting story of life in wartime Paris.

"Banquet of Beggars" opens in Paris in the winter of 1940, just a few months after the events of "Paris Requiem". The Nazi occupation is starting to deeply affect its citizens. Food is in short supply, as is coal, and life is hard for many, especially Detective Eddie Giral. He sees the worst of everything, and trying to work under the conditions set by the Nazis, makes his job all the harder. When a black-marketeer is found murdered, Eddie is assigned the case, and it's not long before he starts to unravel a complex and dangerous conspiracy.

When another murder takes place, this time a German trader, the Nazi occupiers decide there needs to be retribution unless the killer is found. And so Eddie enters a race against time, caught in a web of deceit and subterfuge. His job is made that much harder as he discovers the involvement of power-mad Nazis, prominent Parisians, and out of town mobsters.

Fans of author Chris Lloyd's previous Giral books will not be disappointed. Paris under Nazi rule is painted in dark and dismal detail - empty streets, empty shops, empty people are all drawn in stark profile. At the same time, the divide between the haves and have-nots, those suffering under the occupation, and those thriving, is made plain. The ways in which the people of Paris try to feed themselves and heat themselves, while trying to adhere to the rules laid down by their oppressors is laid bare on the page. Attempts by cinema-goers to vent their hatred of the Nazi's by boo-ing at the screen is funny, but also sad. The role of the black market is key to the story, and again, the ways in which people are forced to act, is distressing. As the complex conspiracy unfolds, Eddie is forced to make his own difficult decisions.

Readers will be pleased to know their favourite characters are all here - Dominique, the Bouvier Brothers, and Detective Boniface. And of course, Nazi liaison, Major Hochstetter - the scenes between him and Eddie are some of the highlights of the book, as they thrust and parry to use the other to their advantage. Eddie, at least, scores some decent coffee and whisky now and again.

This is possibly the finest book yet in the series - in parts distressing, in others enlightening, it never fails to bring into stark focus life in occupied Paris. The choices people had to make, and the concessions forced on them are clear. And even pragmatic Eddie Giral has to decide which battles to win and which to lose.

This excellent book will appeal to long-time fans and those of Luke McCallin, Simon Scarrow and Ben Creed. Heartily recommended.

[Karolyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Here is my review of Banquet of Beggars by Chris Lloyd

This was another great book by Chris Lloyd telling us about Detective Eddie Giral living in Paris under German occupation in 1940. It doesn’t sound like a good life living during the war, living on rations when some things were so scarce you didn’t see things like butter for months and eventually bought it on the black market. Eddie is investigating the death of a black market trader and not having much luck getting any information from the locals about anything to do with him. He’s finding that he has to change his ways to get information and even use his German contact if need be. It’s a great read with a good trek around Paris using plenty of road names showing that Chris has been doing his research into the old Paris during the war and where the Germans gained occupation and into which buildings. It’s very well written, giving plenty of detail about the French people and German soldiers as needed to tell the story. Eddie moves around trying to get information and goes between the two. It’s a very good storyline and investigation that leads Eddie to interesting places. I enjoyed the story and the characters, especially Eddie who is a character unto himself.

Blurb :

THE BRAND NEW NOVEL IN THE AWARD-WINNING OCCUPATION SERIES, FEATURING DETECTIVE EDDIE GIRAL

In Paris 1940, survival means sacrifice. Like most in the city, Detective Eddie Giral has already lost so much under Occupation: the people he once loved, the job he once believed in.

And his latest investigation into the murder of a black-marketeer has made it clearer than ever: Eddie is no longer just catching criminals. He's working for them. Because when a German trader is the next to die, the authorities decide it's innocent civilians who will pay the price - unless Eddie can find the killer in time.

As hunger grows, tensions rise and a fierce rebellion brews, Eddie will tread a dark path between doing whatever it takes to live with the enemy... and also with himself.

[Janet · Rating 4 out of 5]

The third book in this excellent series that is set in occupied Paris during the Second World War. It's the winter of 1940 and the French population is suffering from shortages of food and fuel. The black-market is the background to this story and Detective Eddie Giral is trying to solve a murder of a black-marketeer.
The historical setting is superb and well-researched. The hardship and deprivation of the French people in contrast to the German occupiers is vividly portrayed. Eddie is a wonderful character and the difficult decisions he has to make to keep the Parisians safe whilst appeasing the Germans makes for grim reading at times.
This is a gripping historical read.
I received a free review copy of the book from the publisher in exchange for my honest and unedited review.

[Jo-anne Atkinson · Rating 5 out of 5]

In Occupied Paris the French police are trying to maintain law and order despite being hated by the Germans and also the ordinary people. Eddie Giral has some influence and respect from the occupying forces but he is also seen as a rebellious loose cannon. When he starts to investigate a case surrounding the death of a black market profiteer, he discovers that maybe the lines are becoming blurred.
It is the the credit of Lloyd's writing that I didn't realise that this was the third book in an ongoing series until I started to write this review! It sits really neatly on its own and is an excellent read. I find the period fascinating and the tensions of relationships under the extreme circumstances are drawn in a coherent and readable sense. The characters are believable and there is also an undercurrent of dark humour that I loved.

[Sebastian Dixon · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very entertaining story, strongly researched with interesting and complex characters.

A real page turner.

Having said that, I found the writing a bit cumbersome, with facts belaboured and repeated and some of the historical tidbits shoehorned in instead of flowing naturally.

More like 3.5 out of 5 as I would highly recommend to fans of historical fiction, especially those with an interest in this era.

[Greville Waterman · Rating 5 out of 5]

The third in what is turning out to be a fascinating and well researched and written series.

Positively Furstian and Kerr-like in its droll humour and historical accuracy the plot is clever and well developed and the characters well drawn.

Wartime Paris is of course the real hero of this exceptional book.

Highly recommended.

[Heather Chambers · Rating 5 out of 5]

Eddie Giral is hunting for the killer of a Black Marketeer in the heart of Occupied Paris.

I’m doing so he must walk a fine line, trying not to antagonise the Germans with whom he must work (too much) and not disenfranchise his fellow Frenchman who consider him a collaborator.

Really enjoyed this book and will be going back to read the previous 2 Giral novels.

[Scott Head · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one continued the relationship between the good French inspector Edouard of the French police in the early days of Nazi occupation of Paris. But the book was long and dull and without much to grip my interest. It severely delayed my reading pace. I enjoyed the familiarity I had withe the main character and his foil, but the whole story was a let down compared to the previous two tales in this trilogy.

[Chris · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thoroughly enjoyed the setting (occupied Paris) and characters (down at heel Parisian police Vs the German occupiers). It's not a time period I'm familiar with but Chris Lloyd painted a very clear picture of the time, setting and atmosphere in my head. I've read this out of sequence but it read well as a standalone novel. I'll dig out the others in the series now.

[David Ebsworth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Un Jeune Homme Chantait! Eddie Giral is a badly conflicted Maigret trying to survive in Occupied Paris. I just love Chris Lloyd's writing and, with my own passion for wartime Paris, this is one of the novels I've enjoyed most in 2024. Looking forward to the next one.

[Anna Brunskill · Rating 4 out of 5]

Definitely enjoyed this the most of the series thus far, having got to know the characters and context. Atmospheric, intriguing and very well-written.