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"Dark, edgy humor … ”
Bistro Nights
By David Benjamin
Steve and Mie are a pair of globetrotting journalists. One of their pastimes, on their “bistro nights” in Paris, is making up fanciful stories about the strangers upon whom they spy at nearby tables.
Then, one summer evening, when Steve and Mie start spinning yarns about a beautiful waitress and a lonely American who drinks too much, they end up snooping into a pair of tempestuous love triangles.
The American is Cavendish, a down-and-out novelist who’s falling in love with Mireille, the waitress. But Mireille loves Serge, a dangerous, exciting and jealous ex-convict. One night, after spying on Mireille and Serge, Cavendish has an inspiration—a novel, set in Paris’s criminal underworld at the turn of the 20th century. He calls it Apache Dance.
Cavendish’s heroine is a tragic cabaret singer, Fifine. Her lover is Nicolas, brutal leader of an “apache” gang. The third point in Cavendish’s passionate triangle is the meek Maxim, who loves Fifine from afar—too far— but too close to the dangerous Nick.
The contemporary drama of Cavendish, Mireille and Serge courses through an intimate tour of Parisian nightlife, from the rustic bistro, Le Petit St.-Benoit, to the famous Rosebud Bar. Apache Dance, the novel-within-the-novel, unveils vividly the spectacle and squalor of a bygone Parisian demimonde.
In Apache Dance, Nick holds Fifine in his thrall. Maxim prepares a desperate measure to save the woman he loves. But then, before Maxim can act, Nick and his gang pull off a gruesome carjacking that launches a police dragnet. Nick is forced into hiding long enough for Fifine to escape. Or does she?
As the characters in Apache Dance meet their destiny, the reader can only guess whether a similar fate awaits Cavendish, Mireille and the lurking, vengeful Serge.
Meanwhile, Steve and Mie, who started out as mere voyeurs, find themselves drawn irresistibly toward the heat, lust, grace and danger of la danse apache.
AWARDS: Shelf Unbound Best Indie Books Notable 100, Literary Fiction, 2023. Independent Press Awards, Distinguished Favorite, Romantic Suspense, 2024.
Bistro Nights
By David Benjamin
Price: $20
What they're saying
“Reading David Benjamin’s descriptions of meeting and eating in the bistros of Paris, along with his intriguing characters and the mysteries surrounding them, I found myself hungering for more and wanting to get to the end of the book to find out how all of their lives might intersect. Yet, I wanted to delay that ending so I could savor his facility with words and images. I felt like a regular visitor to Paris though I’ve never been there and felt like I knew the characters as if they were living, breathing people. Benjamin is a gifted storyteller.”
— Callen Harty, author, Bleeding Heart
“For the connoisseur of Parisian nightlife, the real and imagined adventures of Steve and Mie provide a pleasant immersion into the often whimsical goings-on among the lovers and thugs of the demimonde. For fans of dark, edgy humor, Bistro Nights is an enjoyable diversion from the harsh light of everyday life.”
— Norman Gilliland, Wisconsin Public Radio