The Perfume Thief

 The Perfume Thief is written by Timothy Schaffert.  

I felt this was an unusual novel about Clementine, an 72 year old American ex pat with a perchance for dressing as a gentleman.  Different than any other historical novel of this time period I have read before.

Looking back on her life as a con artist and lesbian, she is trying to lead a quiet life of a legitimate perfumer during the early days of Germany's take over of Paris.  When she gets caught up once again in intrigue as a collaborator to Oskar Voss, a Francophile Nazi bureaucrat, who is trying to win the favor of Hitler with a special perfume scent that he thinks will disguise the smell of noxious gas.

Caught up in her final con as she tries to work for the resistance and help save Paris from the Nazis, while trying to find a secret perfume diary, she thinks was originally stolen from her.  She is 

In order to complete this she finally has to tell the story of her life, that has led her from Manhattan to Marrakech, to Costa Rica and finally to the bordellos of Paris. This is a look at the life of someone hiding 

 Clementine is a brilliant character invented as an example of the queer history that was lost. This is a story created from history , but  the imagination of the author to tell the story of those who needed to hide their sexual preference and their true feelings of love to stay alive.   Once she’s allowed herself to love others, she deceives one last time for those she loves. 

I found this novel hard to follow the way its flashbacks and current storyline were interspersed.  I also found it slow reading and not as compelling as I normally enjoy,