August 2008, Cezanne’s Quarry  was selected as an editor’s choice by the Historical Novels Review.

In January 2009, Betty of Mystery Book News chose it as one of the best mysteries of 2008. For her original review, which called Cezanne’s Quarry “an awe-inspiring murder mystery” and “an amazing multifaceted novel”.

Crime fiction editor of the Boston Globe, listed Cezanne’s Quarry as one of her three favorite books of 2008. 

Cézanne’s Quarry Boston Globe Review- “highly accomplished, compelling novel”

In baffling case, Aix marks the spot

The Boston Globe By Hallie Ephron
June 29, 2008

Barbara Pope takes a whiff of historical evidence that artist Paul Cézanne had a love affair with a mysterious woman when he was painting the mountains and quarries of Aix-en-Provence, France, in 1885 and spins it into an elegant murder mystery. “Cézanne’s Quarry” opens with the murder of Solange Vernet, the woman with whom Pope imagines Cézanne became besotted. With experienced judges away on summer holiday, the investigation falls in the lap of Bernard Martin (”a judge with little experience and no family or connections in the South of France”). Naïve and lacking in self-confidence, Martin is at the mercy of the gruff, ruthless Inspector Albert Franc, who wants to dispose of the case as quickly as possible.

Pope graphically depicts the hot journey by wagon to the quarry where Vernet is found dead. The reader can almost smell the rotting flesh and hear the flies as Martin examines the quickly decomposing body. Martin had once crossed paths with this beautiful, independent woman when they both sought a copy of Darwin’s “The Origin of Species.” Martin is outraged but not surprised at Inspector Franc’s contempt for the victim, and later notes to himself that “the abuse of young women was by far the most commonly committed and least prosecuted crime in all of France.” Flourishes like this remind the reader that the author is both a historian and a feminist scholar.

Inspector Franc zealously pursues the investigation, eager to pin the murder on Vernet’s longtime lover, self-taught geologist Charles Westerbury. Failing that, he builds a case against Cézanne. Westerbury and Cézanne are a study in contrasts - one a scientist who studies the mountains, the other an artist who paints them. Martin, growing into his role as investigator, becomes convinced that neither man is responsible. The ending delivers a satisfying twist.

“Cézanne’s Quarry” is a highly accomplished, compelling novel. Beneath an exquisite veneer of historical detail lurks a thoughtful exploration of science and religion, of old values and new, and of a woman’s place in the world.

The Boston Globe - Hallie Ephron

Library Journal

May 15th, 2008

Dead women tell no tales. Or do they? Historian Pope (founding director, women’s & gender studies, Univ. of Oregon) opens her debut novel with inexperienced, altruistic Judge Bernard Martin and cynical, seasoned Inspector Albert Franc investigating the death of Solange Vernet, strangled in a quarry in 1885 Aix-en-Provence during the last two weeks of a sweltering August. The two men, both eager to advance their careers, zero in on Solange’s lover, Charles Westerbury, an English geologist, and Paul Cézanne, the French painter and another possible lover, as their two main suspects. Was the murder a crime of passion? Or was it something more sinister? Martin diligently pulls at various threads of the case to gather evidence to avenge Solange’s death. Will he succeed in identifying the culprit before the other judges return from their holidays when all he has are uncooperative suspects and more questions than answers? Pope creates an enthralling cozy complete with captivating characters and a riveting plot set against the lovely backdrop of 19th-century Provence. Highly recommended for all historical mystery fiction collections. [See Prepub Mystery, LJ 2/1/08.] STARRED REVIEW -Susan O. Moritz, Montgomery Cty. Pub. Libs., MD

The Oregonian
Sunday, June 15, 2008

A murder, some history and a dash of science

Southern France - A scrap of a Paul Cezanne canvas might be a clue to the killer, or is it?

“Boys stumble upon the body of Solange Vernet in a quarry in the south of France. She is a beautiful woman and, for 1885, quite a free thinker. Bernard Martin, Aix-en-Provence’s least experienced magistrate, once spoke to her (rather daringly) over a volume of Darwin’s “The Origin of the Species.” It is his ill luck that the more senior members of the judiciary are all on vacation when the body is discovered. Solange Vernet’s murder becomes his case.

University of Oregon professor Barbara Corrado Pope mixes history, art and a splash of science together in her debut novel, “Cezanne’s Quarry.” Martin’s initial suspicions rest on Englishman Charles Westbury, Solange’s longtime companion and a local scholar-for-hire. Police inspector Albert Franc grouses when Martin lets Westbury free. It isn’t long before Martin connects a bit of canvas found at the quarry with the artist Paul Cezanne, who has also lately been enamored of Solange. Martin finds several disturbing paintings by the man, depicting the assault of a woman who bears a striking resemblance to the murdered one.Still, Martin is unable to pin the murder on either the Englishman or the painter. A childhood friend in need and a letter written by the murdered woman serve to complicate matters. When Martin withholds evidence from Franc, the police inspector turns the tables to his advantage. Suddenly, the magistrate’s position comes under threat. Without key pieces of evidence, he is no closer to finding the murderer than in the beginning.

Pope mixes fictional and historic characters with great dexterity, offering a portrait of Cezanne as a tortured soul, wounded by his past and stuck with a mistress he does not love.

It is in conversation with Cezanne’s childhood friend, the great French writer Emile Zola, that Martin finds the answer to the mystery in front of him.”I’ve done a lot of investigating,” Zola says. “Not police work, of course. But for my novels.”

Katie Schneider The Oregonian.

“Could Paul Cézanne be a killer? That’s one of the disturbing prospects confronting novice magistrate Bernard Martin in August 1885 as he starts to investigate the murder of Solange Vernet, a recent transplant from Paris whose brutalized remains are discovered near a favorite haunt of the painter’s outside Aix, in Pope’s provocative debut. Was the free-thinking beauty with the flame-colored locks slain by her lover, self-professed Darwinian scholar-and likely scam artist-Charles Westbury, as Martin’s boss contends, or by a smitten Cezanne? Martin quickly recognizes that the case could be a career-maker-or breaker-if he antagonizes the artist’s powerful family without overwhelming evidence. Pope animates her canvas with plenty of vivid period detail…Francophiles and history buffs will find much to like.”
-Publisher’s Weekly

“In fewer than 400 pages, first-time novelist Pope skillfully explores the subjugation and abuse of women in the nineteenth century; the injustices of the French legal system; the conflict between Darwinian philosophy and established religious belief; and Cézanne’s art, love life, and depressed personality. She also weaves a fascinating murder mystery into these diverse thematic threads, forming an intriguing portrait of the painter’s life in Provence and how others might have perceived him. A body is found in a quarry near Aix-the lovely Solange Vernet, object of Cézanne’s unrequited love and the paramour of Darwinian scholar Charles Westbury. Unfortunately, the summer holiday leaves only a skeleton law-enforcement crew in place, among them the inexperienced, timid magistrate Bernard Martin and his callous detective assistant, Franc, who unceremoniously hauls in Westbury and Cézanne for questioning. Both investigators believe this crime of passion points to a lover spurned-but which one? With a bleak view of humanity similar to Émile Zola’s, this story of tortured love and repressed violence resembles Iain Pears at his darkest and Arturo Pérez-Reverte’s The Flanders Panel (1994) in tone and thematic depth.
-Booklist Jen Baker

“This is an artful historical thriller centering around the father of modern art, Paul Cezanne, and his true-life obsession with a beautiful, unfettered woman. The author’s canvas includes the impact of the theory of evolution, religious conservatism, and the search for justice in the Third Republic of France, whose cultural strictures are tight enough to imprison everyone.”
-Karleen Koen, author of Now Face to Face, Dark Angels and
Through a Glass Darkly

“Marvelous! With careful research and deft storytelling, Barbara Pope has given us a rich portrait of 19th century France. The author has woven a compelling mystery with strands of love, art, science, and religion. The murder of an intellectual and beautiful young woman leads us into the world of the French salon, where the arguments over evolution, religion, and the place of women still resonate today. Pope is particularly gifted at portraying the inner turmoil of an artist seeking his art, as a frustrated Cezanne tries to capture on paper what he sees in his head. Cézanne’s Quarry is entertaining, absorbing, and difficult to put down. A first-rate debut.”
-David Ball author of The Sword and the Scimitar and
Empires of Sand

“In her exciting debut novel, Cézanne’s Quarry, Barbara Corrado Pope richly evokes the time, ambiance and characters-Paul Cézanne and Émile Zola among others-of late 19th century France. The sights, sounds, even the scents of the period are brought vividly to life. With elegant exposition the intriguing plot moves effortlessly to its surprising conclusion.”
-Ellen Jones, author of The Fatal Crown and
Beloved Enemy: The Passions of Eleanor of Aquitane

“Barbara Corrado Pope has devised an intriguing blend of the police procedural and the historical mystery, set among the rivalries and prejudices of provincial France under the Third Republic. The novel portrays Paul Cézanne, painter of both the sublime and the sinister, as a suspect in the murder of a young woman in a quarry near Aix-en-Provence. Cézanne’s Quarry has the stamp of all good detective writing, in which the identity of a murderer which would have seemed impossible at the beginning is inevitable by the end. A richly satisfying entertainment with an investigating lawyer-hero whose career seems far from over.”
-Donald Thomas, author of Villains Paradise and
The Execution of Sherlock Holmes