THE BOOK ARTIST A Hugo Marston Novel

Fiction

Sleazy manners, golden heart

THE BOOK ARTIST

A Hugo Marston Novel

By Mark Pryor

272 pp. Seventh Street Books

Reviewed by Eric Petersen

Mark Pryor returns with the eighth entry in his popular Hugo Marston mystery series. (Previous books in the series are also reviewed on this site.) The middle-aged Hugo Marston, head of security at the US embassy in Paris, is not your typical diplomat.

Though he's a big, tough, pistol-packing Texan, (the author is an Englishman who lives in Texas) he possesses a formidable intellect, impeccable manners, and a passion for collecting rare books. He speaks fluent French and adores Paris and the French people.

Before Hugo took the job at the embassy, he was a criminal profiler for the FBI. Not exactly a social butterfly, he does have a few good friends in Paris. His best friend, Tom Green, is a fat, foulmouthed, ill-mannered, and sleazy semiretired CIA agent with a heart of gold who refers to himself as a “freelance spook.”

Then there's Camille Lerens, a tough, intelligent, and dedicated police detective. Charming and witty as well, becoming one of Paris's top cops was no easy task for her – she’s also transgender. Hugo's love interest is Claudia Roux, a wealthy socialite who happens to be an investigative reporter.

The Book Artist opens where the previous novel left off, with Tom Green in Amsterdam, hunting down a dangerous ghost from his and Hugo’s past, an ex-convict who has vowed to kill them both. It all began when Tom and Hugo, then FBI agents, were called to the scene of a bank robbery.

The robbery was carried out by a pair of identical twin brothers, one of whom was unarmed. Tom shot him anyway – one of the innocent people killed during the botched robbery was Tom’s sister. Hugo helped Tom cover up the unjustified shooting. The authorities believed them, and the surviving twin, Rick Cofer, vowed revenge.

Now Cofer is out of prison after serving a fifteen-year sentence, (though people were killed during the robbery, he was given a sweet plea deal by a nervous prosecutor) and Tom has positively identified him in Amsterdam. But why did Cofer go there instead of Paris? He knew that Tom and Hugo lived and worked in the City of Lights. Tom determines to stop Cofer from carrying out his plan for revenge – by any means necessary.

Meanwhile in Paris, Hugo Marston is not looking forward to attending the annual embassy Christmas party, but he has no choice – it’s his job. His boss, Ambassador J. Bradford Taylor, wants him to escort and keep an eye on a certain guest – Alia Alsaffar, a talented young artist of Irish and Iraqi descent.

Hugo has no interest in art, but his curiosity is piqued when he learns that Alia makes sculptures out of books. They have dinner together, which is crashed by Alia’s angry and obviously drunk former protégé, Josh Reno, who accuses her of not promoting his work as she’d promised and cutting him loose now that she’s become a big success.

Reno storms out of the bistro before Hugo can teach him some manners. Nevertheless, Hugo and Alia enjoy their dinner, and Hugo feels guilty for being attracted to her when he already has a girlfriend. Then one night, while accompanying his boss to an art exhibition in Montmartre, Hugo receives a call from his girlfriend, Claudia Roux.

A call from Claudia’s cell phone, rather, not from her. The male voice on the line belongs to an EMT. Claudia collapsed while on her ten-mile run. Hugo rushes to her side and finds her conscious and lucid. While’s he’s tending to Claudia, he receives a phone call from his boss. Someone has been murdered at the museum where they had been attending an art exhibition.

The victim turns out to be Alia Alsaffar. It was her exhibition that Hugo and the ambassador had been attending. Someone bludgeoned Alia with a snow globe, then strangled her for good measure. Hugo turns to his friend Camille Lerens, but it’s not her case. The case belongs to Lieutenant Adrien Marchand.

Hugo is stunned when Marchand arrests Claudia Roux for the murder. She was never at the museum, but somehow, her DNA was found on Alia’s person. Marchand is a controlling, overzealous detective who doesn’t take kindly to people, especially foreigners, questioning his judgment.

If Hugo is going to prove Claudia’s innocence, he’ll have to sort through several viable suspects, including the aforementioned Josh Reno, Alia’s former benefactors J.D. and Rachel Rollo, whom she recently broke ties with, and Joe Drummond, her estranged stepbrother. He’ll also have to figure out how Claudia’s DNA got on Alia’s body. As a former FBI agent, he knows that DNA is not infallible evidence.

But Hugo has far more to worry about than his innocent girlfriend going to prison for a murder that she didn’t commit when his best friend Tom Green is gunned down by Rick Cofer – and Hugo is next on Cofer’s hit list…

The Book Artist is another fine entry in the Hugo Marston mystery series. A tad predictable perhaps, but still a good, brisk, addictive page turner. As always, book lovers and Francophiles will find much to adore. Hugo Marston is a hugely appealing sleuth, and the impressionistic narrative and sharp dialogue set the scene and keep the story moving. Highly recommended to mystery fans!

Eric Petersen is an administrator and blogmaster for the Internet Writing Workshop, an international, online writer’s group run out of Penn State University. You can reach him by e-mail at EricPetersen1970@hotmail.com