The Count of Sainte-Hélène, or The Lure of Infamy is a historical novel full of intrigue, mystery, romance, and colorful characters that begins in the year 1816. Napoleon has been defeated and the Bourbons restored to the throne of France. The Count of Sainte-Hélène, an intimate friend of the king, is Lieutenant-Colonel of the Legion of the Seine, the regiment charged with the security of Paris and the royal family. When the capital is rocked by a series of spectacular burglaries targeting the homes of the aristocracy, the brilliant ex-convict-turned-detective Vidocq, chief of the Police Security Brigade, is unable to solve the crimes. But a series of events leads him to suspect that Saint-Hélène himself is somehow involved. In accusing such a highly placed aristocrat, Vidocq may have made the biggest blunder of his career...
About the Author: Robert Blumenfeld is the author of Accents: A Manual for Actors (1998; Revised and Expanded Edition, 2002); Acting with the Voice: The Art of Recording Books (2004); Tools and Techniques for Character Interpretation: A Handbook of Psychology for Actors, Writers, and Directors (2006); Using the Stanislavsky System: A Practical Guide to Character Creation and Period Styles (2008); Blumenfeld's Dictionary of Acting and Show Business (2009); Blumenfeld's Dictionary of Musical Theater: Opera, Operetta, Musical Comedy (2010); Stagecraft: Stanislavsky and External Acting Technique-A Companion to Using the Stanislavsky System (2011); Teach Yourself Accents: The British Isles (2013); Teach Yourself Accents: North America (2013); Teach Yourself Accents: Europe (2014); and the collaborator with noted teacher and acting coach Alice Spivak on the writing of her book How to Rehearse When There Is No Rehearsal: Acting and the Media (2007)-all published by Limelight Editions. He lives and works as an actor, dialect coach, and writer in New York City, and is a longtime member of Equity, and SAG-AFTRA. He has worked in regional and New York theaters, as well as in television and independent films. For ACT Seattle he played the title role in Harwood's The Dresser, and he has performed many roles in Shakespeare and Chekhov. In an Off-Broadway season of six Gilbert and Sullivan comic operas for Dorothy Raedler's American Savoyards (under the name Robert Fields), he played the Lord Chancellor and other patter-song roles. He created the roles of the Marquis of Queensberry and two prosecuting attorneys in Moisés Kaufman's Off-Broadway hit play Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde, and was also the production's dialect coach, a job that he did as well for the Broadway musicals, Saturday Night Fever and The Scarlet Pimpernel. Mr. Blumenfeld currently records books for Audible. He has recorded more than 320 Talking Books for the American Foundation for the Blind, including a bilingual edition of Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot, in Beckett's original French and the playwright's own English translation. He received the 1997 Canadian National Institute for the Blind's Torgi Award for the Talking Book of the Year in the fiction category, and the 1999 Alexander Scourby Talking Book Narrator of the Year Award in the fiction category. He holds a BA in French from Rutgers University and an MA from Columbia University in French language and literature.