A young American woman is attacked at an historic Paris chateau and four paintings are stolen the same night, drawing Hugo Marston into a case where everyone seems like a suspect. To solve this mystery Hugo must crack the secrets of the icy and arrogant Lambourd family, who seem more interested in protecting their good name than future victims. Just as Hugo thinks he’s close, some of the … paintings mysteriously reappear, at the very same time that one of his suspects goes missing.
While under pressure to catch a killer, Hugo also has to face the consequences of an act some see as heroic, but others believe might have been staged for self-serving reasons. This puts Hugo under a media and police spotlight he doesn’t want, and helps the killer he’s hunting mark him as the next target….
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This book is part of a series. That being said, I had no trouble reading it as a standalone. I found Hugo Marston to be quite a character. He is well known for solving cases and his methods unconventional.
The pacing of the story was a bit slow for me. While the wittiness and banter between characters was entertaining, I found that it wasn’t enough to keep my attention at times. As the story progressed and the investigation turned into two, I started to become invested. It seemed like everything wasn’t connected and then BAM! It all comes together and you’re left with your mouth hanging open. It totally happened!
This was a pretty good read. Even though the pacing was a lot slower at first, I enjoyed it very much! I think I may check out more Hugo Marston books. The guy kind of grew on me. I give this 4 stars.
Hugo Marston, head of security for the US embassy in Paris, is out for stroll when a gunman begins firing in a popular garden full of tourists and Parisians. He shoots the perpetrator, firing four times – two bullets missing the man altogether, one bullet hitting the shooter’s weapon, and the fourth hitting the shooter. He admits that he’d been aiming at the shooter’s chest, but all four bullets missed his intended target. He’s an instant, but reluctant, hero for having saved many dozens of lives.
The US Ambassador assigns Marston to a case of an American citizen having been garroted at the chateau of the Lambourd family. They are part of the French nobility and are more interested in a Bastille Day party they are throwing than helping Marston and his French counterpart solve the attack on the woman in their home. The family also reported four paintings have been stolen. The youngest member, and possibly the most spoiled of the children, goes missing and is one of the prime suspects in the attack on the American woman.
This is the ninth in the Hugo Marston series. It is a page turner and well-written. The author is good about letting the reader in on what is happening both in Marston’s presence and out of it. Marston is a well-developed interesting man who is intelligent, likable, and erudite. Marston’s colleagues and friends are also likable and intelligent.
You need not have read the first eight books in the series to be able to enjoy this book. Pryor gives the reader enough information to make the connection amongst the main character and his colleagues so the first-time reader can immerse herself in the book and keep reading into the early hours of the morning.
The cover of the hardback edition is wonderfully clever and beautiful.
My thanks to Simon & Schuster and Edelweiss for an eARC.
Caveat: The Kindle edition of this book is poorly formatted and there are extraneous words on the page, repeated on nearly every page, that have no relevance to the story. They are almost like watermarks and are certainly distracting and very annoying. Hopefully, by the date of publication, this issue will have been resolved by the publisher.