Red Stag: A Novel - Softcover

Valdène, Guy De La

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1592286275 ISBN 13: 9781592286270

Publisher: Lyons Press, 2011

Synopsis

A stunning debut novel by Count Guy de la Valdène. A novel of desire, murder and
chilling revenge.

About this title

From the Back Cover:

Red 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 Counts estate, has just turned nineteen. As the son of the Countesss maid, his childhood was one of ambiguous privilege. But his fathers 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 estates 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 ritualized stag hunt, with hounds and horses, for the royal red stag. In the midst of it all, Nicole, the counts daughter, returns to the estate from America.
As the search for the murderers identity intensifies and the stag hunt approaches, Nicole and Vincent find themselves inexorably drawn together. The secrets revealed leave no one innocent, exposing the potential of extremes from devout loyalty to bitter cruelty within the human heart.
Atmospheric and exotic, Red Stag is textured by the wildlife and the rivers and woods of Normandy. It is beautifully written, near-cinematic in its clarity, suspenseful, and utterly unforgettable.

From the Inside Flap:

Red Stag is a tantalizing coming of age love story set against the backdrop of a lush estate in Normandy, France.  Nineteen-year-old Vincent, the son of the Countess’s maid (and whose childhood was one of ambiguous privilege) has just returned from his last year at boarding school to spend the summer on the Count's estate, where his uncle is gamekeeper and where Vincent himself was raised. Shortly after his return, his uncle is discovered brutally murdered and Vincent vows revenge.  Meanwhile, the village is in a state of agitation, anticipating the opening day of the ritualized hunt, with hounds and horses, for the royal red stag. In the midst of it all, Nicole, the count’s daughter, returns to the estate from America.
 As the search for the murderer’s identity intensifies and the stag hunt approaches, Nicole and Vincent find themselves inexorably drawn together. The secrets revealed leave no one innocent, exposing the potential of extremes—from devout loyalty to bitter cruelty—within the human heart.
Atmospheric and exotic, Red Stag is textured by the wildlife and the rivers and woods of Normandy. It is beautifully written, near-cinematic in its clarity, suspenseful, and utterly unforgettable.

About this edition

• Publisher: Lyons Press
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 1592286275
• ISBN 13: 9781592286270
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 382