The Unknown Woman of the Seine A Novel

by Brooks Hansen

In the late autumn of 1889, the body of an unknown woman appeared on the banks of the Seine River in Paris. It was taken to the city morgue behind Notre Dame and put on display for a month, according to protocol. The eerie beauty of the young woman’s expression attracted crowds but no claimant, and so, before the body was dispatched, a mold was taken of the face, yielding a mask which was to become one of the most celebrated cult objects of the 20th century. Set during the final days of the Paris expo of 1889, Brooks Hansen’s captivating The Unknown Woman of the Seine sets out to solve the mystery of who the woman was behind the mask. In charge of that investigation is a former Gendarme and recent prisoner of war just returned from Tonkin, China. Emile Brassard is on his way to Paris, determined to reclaim his place in La Force when he crosses paths with an enigmatic and unnamed young maiden and her gypsy wagon. Detecting villainy, and bent on proving himself to his former superiors, Brassard tracks her into the city and observes from the shadows as, with clear but mysterious purpose, she wends her way into the orbit of several savory and unsavory characters—an Artist, an Impresario, a Madame, a Countess, and one Disciple even—each of whom sees in her some opportunity for profit or redemption; any one of whom may therefore be responsible for her sudden and unexplained disappearance. Brassard’s chase will lead him on a grand tour of the city’s lushest and seamiest venues, from its highest spires down into its darkest catacombs, and past a gallery of equally diverse crimes—the moral, the political, the maniacal. By the end of this enchanting and ominous journey, he will learn the stunning truth of the unknown woman’s true identity, her past and present, but not before unearthing the equally disturbing truth about himself, who he has been, and who he must become.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Mystery, Historical, France

247 pages, Kindle Edition

First published November 1, 2021

About the author

Brooks Hansen is an American novelist, screenwriter, and illustrator best known for his 1995 book The Chess Garden. He has also written one young adult's novel. He lives with his family in Carpinteria, California. He attended Harvard University and was the recipient of the John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship in 2005.

Reviews

[Lauren · Rating 2 out of 5]

The Unknown Woman of the Seine by Brooks Hansen feels like a waste of a beautiful setting and a fantastic premise. I really wanted to like this book, and although I loved the exquisitely portrayed setting, I had some big problems with the author's choices that overshadowed the entertainment value.

This book is introduced as a mystery that promises to use fictional details to fill in the gaps of the real-life mystery of a drowned woman who appeared in the Seine river. I was disappointed to come to the end of the book with almost no details about her life or her death, barring a few shadowy glimpses of her past trauma. In general, I don't love the way Hansen writes women; they all feel reduced to one-note, single-trait caricatures whose sexual escapades are the single most important thing about them.

A major thread running through Hansen's narrative is criticism of people (especially men) who take this woman's life story and make it about them. In his portrayal of this, Hansen ironically takes this woman's story and actually makes it about these men. His point would have been clearer if there was any sort of contrast between the richness of the woman's inner life and the mens' reductive, selfish perspectives of her. Instead, we get not even a shred of personality from this poor woman. She is a cardboard character, existing only to further the male main character's personal journey.

I would not recommend this for mystery-lovers; the few details we get are rushed in at the end and not set up with any kind of forethought. I found the ending unsatisfying, a heap of info that didn't really mean anything to me and didn't offer much closure. This book felt like trying to make slime and throwing all the right ingredients into the bowl, but it never congeals into the right consistency. It just stays a sticky, goopy mess that should feel right, but doesn't. 2.5 stars.

[Margaret · Rating 1 out of 5]

This story was hard to follow.

[Mary G. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Definitely something. I am not sure if I liked the book or not.

[Rose · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was a fanciful attempt to create a backstory for the unknown woman of the Seine. It didn't make a whole lot of sense and the ending was unsatifactory.

[Joe Wells · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow! I was blown away by how much I enjoyed this book. It wasn't a five star read out of the gate, but a gradual flow from liking the book, to really liking the book, to admiring the brilliance of what I had just finished. Putting the book down and sitting there semi stunned. Like being in shock after a car crash. It certainly wasn't from any shocking revelations or intricate plot twists, but from a deep appreciation of story that unfolded before me.

First off, the prose. I have often heard of poetic prose being described as purple, which I discern as flowery in nature. The Writing here is poetic like the quote, "A picture is worth a thousand words.". The Author, Brooks Hansen, writes in a style descriptive as a wall of paintings perused as you walk through the museum, contemplating life. My minds eye never lost the atmosphere of late 19th century Paris or the faces of the Dramatis Personae.

In reality, An unknown woman was found on the banks of the Seine River in France. A famous plaster mold of her face, a "Death Mask", was taken an eventually became famous. This Captured the imagination of our Author, Mr. Hansen, and he began to question himself. .....Who is this Woman? Where did she come from? How did she Die? This book answers those questions for the patient reader. Some may not be completely satisfied as others depending on your taste in literature. A you can tell by my gushing praise, I fall in with the latter.

I don't often compare myself to other reviewers, everyone has different tastes, but I found myself confused at the Majority three star ratings. I just happened to look at a cross section of reviews at the beginning of my read and was shocked that people seemed to find the writing confusing. Not understanding how all these characters connect to the Unknown woman. The real question should be, how does the Unknown woman connect to them.

Going back to the prose. Often throughout the narrative characters are caught between sleep and wakefulness. Producing a strange stream of consciousness on the page, not quite reality, not quite dream. These vignettes helped pull memories into the narrative that fill in the frugal reader without having to give info dumps that would otherwise detract from story. I love the surreal nature of these moments.

Also, I love when the Author does thorough research. This made 19th century Paris live and breathe in my mind. It never seemed like a student regurgitating facts for his final college dissertation.

Finally, I absolutely loved the Character Bassard and his Dog Soter. This is as much his story as the Unknown woman's. They danced through the Narrative like Two Swans on a lake, Like Two ships passing in the night. Like two people on opposite sides of the club, circling ever closer towards each other as 2am draws near, until the final beautiful passages were written like brush strokes on canvas.

[Alison Galloway · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book was picked for a local book club I am a part of.

This book was SO hard to follow. There were parts that were intriguing when I was able to follow. This was written in 3rd person, which I think made it hard for me to follow along. It jumped around from person to person, which I don’t mind if it is written in 1st person.

It wasn’t until after our book club meeting that I understood what was going on because someone explained it to me, then parts started making sense.

[Maya Sokoloff · Rating 2 out of 5]

this book was just slow and not very engaging. The way the author wrote made everything more complicated, and it was hard to understand why things were connected. Sometimes completely irrelevant information out of the blue was pronounced like some grand reveal and it didn’t make any sense. The ending didn’t tie anything together.

[JaNel · Rating 1 out of 5]

Didn’t finish

[William · Rating 2 out of 5]

Somewhat uneven and hard to follow. Some interesting parts but not enough for me to want to read anything more like it. Took awhile to finish and easy to forget what went previously in the book

[Carey Page · Rating 2 out of 5]

Parts of this book are very hard to follow as the author leapfrogs between various points of view. One character begins to jump out as the “detective” of the novel, but the book begins to focus more on him and his story than the actual woman driving the plot. The ending is very disappointing when the detective and this woman finally meet up but never speak a word of dialogue. The intrigue in the book is really her and her character, and yet she gets lost for chapters and is never really fully fleshed out as a person. I feel there’s a huge disconnect with a male author who can’t figure out how to write a feminine voice so she simply doesn’t have one. She literally dressed in white and constantly escaping or even floating through the story like an enigma, and even after the detective figures out who she is and what probably happened to her she never gets to speak, not even one word. You spend the whole book with him trailing her and trying to figure out who she is, but when they finally meet there’s no conversation at all. It’s an extremely disappointing ending to a novel with huge potential and many interesting parts. Some beautiful writing. But in the end it seems like the main character and mystery was too slippery and the whole thing went sideways into meaningless side stories.