The Book Artist by Mark Pryor

Reviewed by Jeanne

Bibliophile and ex-FBI profiler Hugo Marston usually finds his job as head of security for the U.S. Embassy in Paris to be interesting and challenging, but there are some duties he finds rather tedious. Escorting the Ambassador to an American artist’s exhibition at the Dali Museum should make for a fairly boring evening but Hugo is intrigued when he finds that the artist’s medium is books.  He’s even more intrigued when he meets the artist herself and finds her to be young and charming as well as talented.  Unfortunately, the gala opening is marred by a murder, and one of Hugo’s friends stands accused. It’s going to take a lot of sleuthing as well as diplomacy for Hugo to find a solution.

There is a second strong plot concerning Marston’s best friend, the rough and often profane Tom Green, who is on the trail of a man named Cofer who holds a grudge against both Green and Marston.  Cofer has just been released from prison and is headed to Europe, and his intentions aren’t good.  Tom is determined to find him before he can carry out whatever nasty little plan he has.

This is the eighth and latest in the series of Hugo Marston books.  For me, they work well as standalones, Hugo is one of the good guys; he’s not overbearing or condescending, even when he feels someone is in the wrong.  He is also very good at his job.  I like the way he works with the French authorities, and how he treats people in general. 

I have mixed feelings about the competing plotlines.  Both were well done, but it seemed almost an embarrassment of riches. The primary one is more mystery, follow the clues and find the murderer type, while the second is more like a thriller. Each could have carried its own book, and the second one could have been fleshed out more, but those are minor points.

Pryor does a good job of giving the reader a sense of Paris the city, the people, and especially the food.  I am still not convinced that I want to eat snails, however. The descriptions of the book sculptures were well done; I wished I could have seen them! While there can be some thriller elements, for the most part these are straight on mysteries, which I like.  I was especially interested in a solution in this book which involves how DNA could be transferred.  I won’t say more, but it was ingenious.

The Paris Librarian by Mark Pryor

Reviewed by Jeanne

Hugo Marston, head of security for the American Embassy in Paris and former FBI profiler, receives a call from a librarian friend at the American Library. Paul Rogers knows that Hugo has an eye for collectable books and he has an interesting one he thinks Hugo might like.  When Hugo goes to purchase the book, he finds Paul in a locked room, quite dead.  It looks like natural causes, but there’s just something that feels wrong about the scene.  That feeling is magnified when Hugo discovers a young woman he’d met earlier who is researching an actress whose papers have been donated to the library—papers which were under Paul’s care and which someone, or perhaps several someones, seem determined to keep hidden.

This is my first Hugo Marston book, but it won’t be my last. For one thing, I really like Hugo.  He’s good at what he does—very good, indeed—but he also respects the abilities of others and works well with them. A good example is Lt. Camille Lerens, a French policewoman who works out of the serious crimes division: Hugo may suggest avenues of investigation, but her word is the final decision and he doesn’t try to undermine her. The same goes for his friends, including girlfriend Claudia. They come off as competent adults, not just supporting characters to make Hugo look good.

I also enjoy a good mystery that plays fair with the reader, and this one did. Having it as a locked room mystery in the grand old tradition (there are even secret rooms and passages!) was icing on the cake.

Finally, the Paris setting was well done.  There’s a sense of place without having the point belabored.

While I enjoyed this one and recommend it, there were times when I wished I had started with an earlier book as I had the strong sense that I would have understood more with some background.  Max, for example, is a friend and a good investigator but I think I would have appreciated his part more had I known more about him.  Lerens apparently has an extensive back story, explained succinctly but intriguingly at one point, and Merlyn had a large part to play in a previous book.

I do intend to remedy these gaps in the near future. Anyone looking for good, solidly plotted mysteries with well-developed, interesting characters and international settings should find this series to be a winner.

Nevermore's Favorite Fiction: Buster the Dog, Jana Bibi, The Bookseller & more

Buster’s Diaries:  The True Story of a Dog and his Man by Roy Hattersley is pretty much as the title describes it.  Buster is a Staffordshire terrier/ German Shepherd mix who is adopted from a shelter by The Man. The setting is London in the 1990s, and is based on Hattersley’s real dog that ran afoul of Queen Elizabeth II by when he was accused of killing a goose in St. James Park.  The “memoir” is charming, clever, and sometimes quite shrewd in its observations. Our reviewer said it made for an enjoyable couple of hours.

Jana Bibi’s Excellent Fortunes by Betsy Woodman is a delightful tale of a British woman who has lived most of her life in India.  Her son is anxious for her to come to his home in Scotland, a prospect she finds rather depressing but her teaching job will be ending soon and she will need to find a place to go.  News of an inheritance in a rural area of India sends her in search of a new home.  Delightful characters and the 1960s Indian setting made this a very appealing book, recommended by our reviewer.

Tumbleweeds by Leila Meacham follows the stories of three friends in a small Texas town. Trey Don and John are in sixth grade when orphan Cathy Ann Benson moves to town. The three of them form a strong bond, but as they mature, emotions become more complicated.  Then in high school, a prank goes awry and their lives spin off into very different directions.  This is a glorious soap opera, full of drama and plot twists.

Hugo Marston also hailed from Texas, but the former FBI profiler is now head of security for the American Embassy in Paris.  While buying two first editions from his friend Max, the elderly bookseller is kidnapped by at gunpoint.  Hugo finds the French police less than proactive, so he calls in an old friend from the CIA to help solve the case.  The Bookseller  is Mark Pryor’s debut, but is supposed to be the first in a series, and our reviewer found it promising.

Blaze of Glory is the latest Civil War novel by Jeff Shaara. Set during the Battle of Shiloh, Shaara has the knack of bringing history to life by letting the reader glimpse the lives of the officers and enlisted men alike.  This is the first of a new trilogy.  Shaara’s first novel was Gods and Generals, which was a sort of sequel to his father Michael Shaara’s classic Killer Angels.