“The Book Artist,” the eighth book in Mark Pryor’s Hugo Marston mystery series, is entertaining, absorbing–and paced a bit slower than some detective/police procedurals. That’s because it offers readers a nice mixture of Paris atmosphere and American diplomats and others living, working and partying in Paris.
The novel’s law-enforcement angles also require some slower pacing. The main character, Hugo Marston, chief of the security for the U.S. Embassy in Paris, must work within a narrow legal framework (that he sometimes oversteps) while interacting with Paris police and other French agencies.
In “The Book Artist,” a sculptor is murdered, and French police arrest an American suspect who has close connections to Hugo. He is convinced she isn’t the killer. But her DNA has been found on the victim’s body, and the Paris police say they have other evidence that can bring a murder conviction.
Marston must unmask the real killer before his American friend disappears into the French legal system’s labyrinth.
Mark Pryor
Seventh Street Books
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