History Corner / Book Review: The Paris Librarian by Mark Pryor

Disclosure / Disclaimer: I received this ebook, free of charge,from Prometheus Books via Edelweiss, for review purposes on this blog. No other compensation, monetary or in kind, has been received or implied for this post. Nor was I told how to post about it,  all opinions are my own.


And I've got another PERFECT Summer read for you,
that comes out early next month, for those of you 
whose kids still have weeks of vacation left!


paris librarian cover


Synopsis:

Hugo Marston's friend Paul Rogers dies unexpectedly in a locked room at the American Library in Paris. The police conclude that Rogers died of natural causes, but when his girlfriend is also found dead, Hugo is certain mischief is afoot. 

As he pokes around the library, Hugo discovers that rumors are swirling around some recently donated letters from American actress Isabelle Severin. Some are being kept secret. The reason: they indicate that the now ninety-year-old had aided the resistance in frequent trips to France towards the end of World War II. Even more dramatic is the legend that the Severin Collection also contains a dagger, one she used to kill an SS officer in 1944.


Hugo delves deeper into the stacks at the American library and finally realizes that the history of this case isn't what anyone suspected. But to prove he's right, Hugo must return to the scene of a decades-old crime.



Review:



This is the 6th book of the Hugo Marston series, but the first I had read. I have to admit I loved it! It has just the right mix of history and mystery to keep you rapidly turning the pages! I admit I had no idea there was an American Library in Paris, and had been since 1920! So much of this book was a new discovery to me and a delight in finding new things about its history and that of Paris! Even though Hugo works 'outside the lines', his methods ring true and so does the book, which makes it a book that you just can't stop reading. The closed room' mystery harens back to Agatha's best works and provides a very satisfying solution. I will be reading the rest of the books in this series (The Bookseller, The Crypt Thief, The Blood Promise, The Button Man, and The Reluctant Matador, and the stand-alone Hollow Man) and I hope you will too!




About the Author:



Mark Pryor is a former newspaper reporter from England, and now an assistant district attorney with the Travis County District Attorney's Office, in Austin, Texas,  where he lives with his wife and three children. He is the creator of the nationally-recognized true-crime blog D.A. Confidential. He has appeared on CBS News's 48 Hours and Discovery Channel's Discovery ID: Cold Blood. He has also published the true-crime book As She Lay Sleeping

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