France, 1788. Below the gilded surface of aristocratic life, the kingdom seethes with discontent. For Adèle de Valois, a young noblewoman captivated by Enlightenment ideals, the whispers of unrest are distant thunder. For Jean-Luc Moreau, a Parisian locksmith struggling to afford bread, they are the harsh reality of daily life. When the Bastille is stormed in a cry for liberty, their vastly different worlds collide, setting them on a perilous course through ten years that will shatter a nation and redefine humanity.
As the revolution accelerates, Adèle sees her world dismantled ? privileges abolished, family scattered, status erased. Forced into hiding during the Reign of Terror, she must shed her identity and rely on the unlikely protection of Jean-Luc, the pragmatic locksmith whose initial revolutionary hopes curdle into weary cynicism amidst the bloodshed. He witnesses firsthand the September Massacres, the execution of the King and Queen, the rise of Robespierre, and the chilling efficiency of the guillotine, all while navigating the dangerous currents of political conformity and harbouring a secret that could cost him his life.
Their story unfolds against the epic panorama of the French Revolution: the fervent idealism of the Declaration of Rights giving way to the paranoid vigilance of Surveillance Committees; the brutal suppression of the Vendée rebellion scarring soldiers like Arnaud Dubois, brother of the resilient market woman Seraphine; the provincial terrors mirroring the daily executions in Paris; the cynical opportunism of figures like Citoyen Dubois thriving amidst the chaos. From the women's march on Versailles to the Thermidorian Reaction's Gilded Youth, from the hyperinflation of the Directory to the final, decisive Coup of 18 Brumaire, Adèle and Jean-Luc must carve out a fragile existence.
"Echoes of the Guillotine" is a sweeping historical fiction epic exploring the human cost of radical change. It follows intertwined lives across the social spectrum ? aristocrat, artisan, soldier, survivor ? as they grapple with love, loss, betrayal, and the struggle for survival in the shadow of the blade. As the faint echoes of the guillotine finally yield to the tramp of Napoleon Bonaparte's marching boots, they are left to question the true price of liberty and whether the Republic forged in fear can ever truly deliver on its promises.
