The French Illusion

The French Illusion is a kidnapping thriller built around an American honeymoon in Paris that turns into an international hostage crisis. The novel begins with one of its cleanest hooks: “The surveillance began on the third day of the honeymoon.” Paul Tanner and Chelsea Clayburn Tanner are attractive, privileged, newly married Americans visiting Paris after a large wedding in Annapolis. Chelsea loves France, speaks good French, and has carefully posted their itinerary online. Paul is a former Naval Academy man, former JAG officer, and now a Justice Department lawyer. Their social-media openness makes them absurdly easy prey.

A mole in their Left Bank hotel sells their names to a kidnapping team. On the fifth day of the honeymoon, Paul and Chelsea hire a private driver, Malik, for a Normandy trip. In Bayeux, while Paul and Chelsea eat lunch, Malik is drugged by a red-haired young woman with chloral hydrate slipped into his water. A staged bicycle crash creates distraction, the woman steals his keys, and Malik is taken away by ambulance, confused and incapacitated. The fake cyclist changes into a black chauffeur outfit, becomes “Laurent,” and takes Malik’s Peugeot.

When Paul and Chelsea leave the restaurant, “Laurent” explains that Malik had a family emergency and that he is the replacement driver. They believe him. In the car, he releases nitrous oxide into the back seat, locks the windows and doors, and turns off the road. Chelsea says she is dizzy; Paul realizes too late that something is wrong. Laurent and the red-haired woman then inject both of them with ketamine, swap the car’s plates, disable its GPS, and begin the disappearance.