I received a copy of Rebecca Stott’s book, The Coral Thief, from the Library Thing’s early reviewers program, and I truly enjoyed spending time in this book. I say IN this book, as opposed to reading this book, because this is a story that drew me in. The young Daniel Connor thought he had the rest of his life mapped out. He would travel to Paris in July of 1815 and work for the famous Professor Cuvier as an aide-naturaliste. This in turn would significantly improve his reputation in his chosen profession as a “man of science”. Life rarely follows the plans we make for it though, and the traveler on the road of life is often met with “ambushes and skirmishes”. Daniel’s ambush went by the name of Lucienne Bernard. Daniel found out first hand that Lucienne is a thief, a common thief, however, she was not. The lives of Daniel and Lucienne become entwined and Daniel found himself on a road he could never have dreamed of before he met his thief. ( )

Daniel Connor, a young and naive Scottish student of anatomy, is traveling to Paris after the bloody French Revolution to study under the legendary Dr. Cuvier. He is eager to learn and is quickly taught a life lesson about being naive, during his trip he closes his eyes to sleep only to have them 'opened' when a woman traveling on the coach steals his 'baggage'. He gets more than he bargains for when their lives become entwined. The tale is set as Napolean is on his way into exile after his capture at Waterloo, a backdrop which excentuates the times and turmoil taking place across Europe, especially Paris in 1815. When did life begin? Is it set in stone or is it less cut and dry as once thought?

Rebecca Stott does a great job capturing the time period; historical details and research are apparent without distracting the reader form the main plot of the story- Daniel and the Coral Thief. I enjoyed the book and would recommend it to people who are open to the various questions and thoughts about life and what it meant at this time. ( )

The Coral Thief is what i call "an observer to a historically significant time" novel. It is about a Scottish student, Daniel, who comes to Paris to study under Cuvier (a naturalist who thought species couldn't change) right after Napoleon is defeated. The specimens he is bringing from his teacher to Cuvier get stolen by a beautiful woman and he feels that unless he gets those items back he's ruined. The beautiful woman is Lucienne Bernard, a professional thief with a traumatic past who gets Daniel caught up in the political, philosophical, religious and scientific debates of the time.

Things i liked: the illustrations! There were drawings of sculptures, maps, insects and fossils. These pictures really brought to life some of the details of the novel. I also liked Fin, our narrator's roommate. A drunken, but good-natured, medical student who mainly spends his time amputating limbs in the medical wards and forgetting about the horrors of that with his social circle.

What i didn't like: the bits about Napoleon. really don't know why those little interludes were in the book. The ending is also a bit of a letdown. The book builds up to this spectacular heist but then just ends very quickly.

Overall, this is a 3 1/2 out of 5 for me. not bad and i do like Stott's style, so i may pick up her other book, Ghostwalk, at some later date. ( )

The Coral Thief, by Rebecca Stott, is an intriguing novel that takes place in 1815 Paris; a tumultuous time in Europe, following Napoleon's exile. A time in which not only artists roamed the streets of the city, but great thinkers - scientists, doctors, philosophers - who came to Paris to engage in the great debates over the great questions - where did we come from? When did time actually begin? The story follows a young medical student who travels to Paris from Edinburgh to study anatomy. On his journey he meets a mysterious woman, and upon his arrival in Paris, he finds she has taken from him several items of great importance, letters, journals, and specimens that would secure him a place working with some of the greatest minds of the time in Paris. In his search for the woman, he finds that she is a master of thievery and disguise. He eventually finds himself entangled in a world of ideas beyond anything he had considered before. As his days pass in the city, he finds himself opening up to new scientific theories, meeting exiles in hiding, witnessing the transfer of art brought to Paris by Napoleon back to its rightful owners, and caught up in an underworld of intrigue, crime, and new ideas. A fast-paced novel that incorporates details that will appeal to the senses as well as the intellect, The Coral Thief is a "provactive and tantalizing mix of history, philosophy, and suspense" (book jacket). ( )

Stott's novel takes place in Paris in 1815, a turbulent time in French history, with Napoleon en route to exile on Saint Helena and Paris chock-a-block with opportunistic foreigners, many vying for the the Napoleonic booty.

The story centers on a 21-year-old Edinburgh medical student named Daniel Conner who has come to Paris to study comparative anatomy under Cuvier at the Jardin des Plantes. Daniel arrives with a gift -- the coral of title - in his possession. This treasure, however, is almost immediately stolen by a mysterious woman with whom he shares a coach. And so the caper begins...for a caper it is: the book is a somewhat odd mixture of heist and historical romance.

I wanted to like this novel more than I did. The books begins with a good deal of promise and a nice brisk pace. Then too, I lived in Paris for many years and thus the setting interests me. Certainly such an intriguing period in history should only have added to the narrative possibilities. However, I found the 1st person point of view too limiting for any real depth, and as a result my involvement with the characters never fully developed. I found Daniel somewhat too self-absorbed, too naive, and without any dramatic irony which might have overcome the restrictions of that POV. Lucienne, the mysterious woman, spends much of the novel hiding from the police by dressing up as a man, and I'm afraid I just didn't buy it. It seemed a tired device and one for which I was unable to suspend disbelief. As a whole, the characters felt somewhat stereotypical to me, which is a shame, since I think the choice of time and place had so much potential.

Unfortunately, Stott has added a number of vignettes of Napoleon's voyage to Saint Helena which, in my opinion, go nowhere. I kept wondering why they were there. Although interesting, they didn't connect to the main story and seemed like intrusions, albeit nicely written ones. Stott has said she used them to anchor Daniel's story to history but, for me, they didn't work.

Stott's descriptions of Paris, while obviously well researched, sound a bit expository at times, as when the two main characters, Daniel and Lucienne, race through the tunnels under Paris and Lucienne pauses to interject some information about a counterfeiter's printing press she once observed down there. It does rather destroy any suspense, and makes it hard to believe anyone really felt in danger.

There's no denying that Stott has a daft hand when it comes to historical detail, and a good understanding of issues which transcend the novel's era. In fact, the most interesting passages, for me, where those that involved discussions of the new science and the controversies surrounding its perceived clash with theology. I wish she'd concentrated more on that rather than framing the plot around the heist -- a adventure which seemed so convoluted I lost interest.

I kept wondering, as I read this novel, why I didn't like it more, why it was failing to engage me. So many wonderful ingredients, and yet in the end they simply didn't come together strongly enough to satisfy this reader. Having said that (and saying it with regret), I would like to read more of Stott's work, since even under the disappointment of this particular plot, I get a sense of her talent and passion. ( )