The Lure of the Falcon marks Gilles Goëlo's debut as Juliette Benzoni's first male hero in this new historical adventure. The novel opens in 1779 with young Gilles being primed for the priesthood at his mother's insistence. She believes her son's ordination will atone for an affair that left her with a bastard son and deprived her of a religious vocation.

But Gilles' heart rebels and he secretly wishes to go to America with Lafayette to join the fight against the British Imperialists. He also yearns to track down the identity of the father he has never known and whose name his mother refuses to disclose to him.
Gilles' frustrated love for Judith de Saint-Mélaine, the daughter of an impoverished aristocrat, finally impels him to leave for the New World. In America, Gilles shows his true colours, both as a dauntless soldier and a formidable ladies' man. The renaissance man par excellence, he swims, fences, rides and makes love all with a nonpareil finesse.

General Washington sends him on an Indian mission where he again demonstrates his capacity for heroism and passion. Through a series of bizarre adventures, Gilles comes to terms with his own identity, which is revealed to him by the « Lure of the Falcon »

Gilles Gaëlo now Chevalier de Tournemine, nicknamed the Gyrfalcon, hero of the Revolutionary War in America is finally ready for marriage he promised to Judith Saint-Mélaine. Glory smiles at him, his reputation for bravery followed him back to Versailles.

In France, he goes in search of his missing fiancée, who has been the victim of an assassination attempt. He vows to find her and to raise money to buy his family domain. So Gilles leaves for Spain where he meets the Duchess of Alba and falls into the trap of love. She asks him to buy for her the famous necklace of Queen Marie-Antoinette.

text below translated from the French edition

The Bastard child destined for the priesthood, Gilles Goëlo left his native Brittany to become a war hero at the side of La Fayette. Now Chevalier Tournemine fascinates the court of Versailles by the story of his bravery and strong powers of seduction. The long-awaited night of his wedding with Judith, his beloved, Gilles is kidnapped by a woman and taken to a dungeon of the Bastille. With the secret complicity of Louis XVI, he manages to escape. In liberty, he tries everything to find Judith again, who disappeared in despair, believing her husband had betrayed their love on their wedding night.
To save the passion of his youth, Gilles, the Lure of the Falcon, sets off again on the path of love and war ... that of the greatest danger...

text below translated from the French edition

Gilles de Tournemine believes finally to know the delights of love and parts again for America with his young wife Judith. During a halt on the journey, he wins a plantation called "Upper Savannah" located on an island of the Caribe’s. While taking possession of the place, he believes he has found paradise ... but he discovers hell.

The master of the prestigious area, Simon Legros is a greedy and unscrupulous man, desperate to keep the plantation. Facing this new setback of fate, his life also in danger the Gyrfalcon fights with bravely. But he seeks above all to win back Judith who refuses to be his wife, since she knows that Gilles is attracted by someone else. Will they succeed to be united by the desire that binds them together since the dawn of their Youth?

As can be read in many articles, Juliette Benzoni mentions that she had received a personal letter by the 40th President of the United States Ronald Reagan, where he thanks the Author for her excellent narration of the "Independence War" 1775 - 1783 in the first volumne of her Le Gerfaut Saga « Les Gerfaut des Brumes » (The Lure of the Falcon). The letter was signed also by his wife Nancy. Unfortunatelly that letter was destroyed by a fire that broke out in one of the rooms of Juliette's house. She told me on one of my visits that not only that letter was burned on that unfortunate day, but also the manuscript of her Bestseller Catherine, One Love is Enough and many more souvenirs.

Artwork: Laurence Schwinger

Back in 1976 it was via the daily French newspaper France-soir that Juliette's new book The Lure of the Falcon was introduced.  THE Novel which impressed the former President of America Ronald Reagan so much that he wrote a letter to our Romancière, thanking her for the way she described the « American Indipendence War » in the first Novel of the book series.
The series had 1987 a tremendous success on French TV (directed by Dame Marion Sarraut) with handsome Laurent le Doyen in the leading role. It was the first time the author chose a male as main hero in her books, whereas so far it always had been females.





Translation of the small text above, which was written on the day 'France-Soir' published in 1976 the first episode of 'Le Gerfaut des Brumes' in their newspaper.
« The Gyrfalcon is a relentless hunter. It is the nickname given to Gilles Goëlo, soldier of La Fayette, by his comrades in arms in America »...

* Note:  there is a false information in the US edition of The Devil's Necklace  - it is not the sequel to The Lure of the Falcon it is the second book in the series! Book 3 & 4 were alas never translated so far ! The 'English' and the 'American 'Publisher's left their Readers in suspense about the fate of 'Gilles de Tournemine'. No wonder the 'Reviewers' wrote on Amazon and Goodreads : « *excellent story but a pity the author never finishes her stories »!  When in reality two more translations were missing... !
*(they had the Catherine series in mind, the book who is finally after more than forty years translated and published by Telos Publishing since June 2021)

The series "Le Gerfaut des Brumes" by Juliette Benzoni was also the subject of feuilletons in various magazines. Here we see a copy with an extract from the fourth and last novel "Haute Savane" in1981. I think it is the same illustrator as for the 'J'ai lu' book covers !As I have already mentioned, for unknown reasons the last two books were not translated into English by Heinemann Ltd and Putnam's & Son.





Text by Juliette Benzoni for the TV-Guide Télé Star in 1987

A bastard dedicated to the priesthood by a mother who has never forgiven him for his birth, Gilles Goëlo falls in love with a poor young aristocrat, Judith de Saint Mélaine, who, after rejecting him, promises to wait for him for three years. Gilles runs away from his college and joins the expeditionary corps in Brest, which the Count of Rochambeau will lead to the rescue of the insurgent Americans. Across the Atlantic, Gilles becomes a man and even a legendary soldier called 'the Falcon'. On the battlefield of Yorktown, he meets his father who, on the verge of death, recognises him as his son.

Having become the knight of 'Tournemine de La Hunaudaye', Gilles returns to France hoping to find Judith but, victim of her brothers, the young girl has disappeared after a terrible ordeal. However, Rochambeau introduces Gilles to 'King Louis XVI' who makes him a lieutenant in his bodyguards. The young man then devotes himself to the sovereign with unconditional devotion. This soon leads him to discover the strange actions of the 'Count of Provence', the king's brother, who is trying to take over the crown.

When he finds Judith, she is living in the entourage of a certain 'Count of Cagliostro,' whom Gilles will have the opportunity to meet. to save his life. Involved, then, in spite of himself in what will become the 'Affair of the Queen's Necklace', Gilles is able to marry Judith, who fled at the time of Cagliostro's arrest. But, on the evening of his wedding, Gilles, believing himself to be following an order from the Queen, is kidnapped by the beautiful 'Countess of Balbi'. When he returns home, Judith, believing him to be the Queen's lover, has disappeared. At that moment, Gilles is arrested for collusion with the 'Cardinal of Rohan' and thrown into the Bastille, from where he manages to escape with the help of the King himself and an extraordinary secret agent named 'Beaumarchais'. Taking refuge in the latter's home, he has to pass for dead and then assumes the persona of an American privateer, 'John Vaughan'. It is under this avatar that he meets Judith one evening, who has become a creature of the Count of Provence. She runs, with a certain 'Job Kernoa', the most elegant gambling house in Paris. Gilles, who thanks to an old servant has been able to gain possession of the Tournemine treasure, snatches his wife from an undignified life and takes her away after setting fire to the gambling house...

« Télé Star offers here the complete fourth part of the 'The Lure of the Falcon' series, for which the television adaptation had to take some liberties, for reasons that will be obvious when reading. Originally titled "Haute-Savane", this episode takes place entirely in America and on the island of 'Santo Domingo', now 'Haiti'.  Due to the time and money involved, the action was moved to Brittany, but if not in writing, the spirit of the story was retained »

JULIETTE BENZONI

Gilles : But... my father ? (...)
His Godfather the abbot de Talhouët : Your father ? He is the last of the scary breed of the Tournemine, who over centuries have melted like birds on prey on anything that came within reach of their laps (...) He was left with no power or the enormous wealth that was said at one time to be theirs, at a certain epoch the lords of the Hunaudaye were only slightly less great Seigneurs than the King of France. His name was Pierre...


Laurent Le Doyen in the role of Gilles de Tournemine
Artwork © Hélène Rouillé