The Bookseller

July 9, 2012
Austin, Tex., ADA Pryor introduces, in his amiable first mystery, a former FBI profiler, and transplanted Texan, Hugo Marston. Wandering the City of Light on vacation from his official position as the U.S. embassy’s security chief, Hugo sees a gun-toting thug kidnap elderly book dealer Max Koche straight from Max’s Seine-side bookstall. When the police are slow to act, Hugo undertakes his own investigation, discovering a pattern of similar crimes against Max’s community of booksellers, the bouquinistes, possibly linked to feuding drug gangs. Hugo’s developing romance with journalist Claudia de Roussillon, his first since an unpleasant divorce, provides relief from the stress of the case, until a connection appears between Claudia’s aristocratic father and Max’s surprising past as a Nazi hunter. Pryor minimizes any of the true crime grittiness readers of his true crime blog, D.A.Confidential.com, might have expected, instead sketching a somewhat touristy but nonetheless convincing France and a refreshingly unconflicted, likable hero. Agent: Rees Literary Agency.

Starred review from September 1, 2012

Hugo Marston, a former FBI agent, works security at the U.S. embassy in Paris. He is enough of a maverick (he is from Texas, after all) to investigate when his friend Max, a bouquiniste (one of those famed booksellers along the Seine), is kidnapped. Dumbfounded by the police's lackluster response, Hugo calls in Tom Green, his buddy from Quantico, now a retired CIA operative who's bored out of his mind. Then there's the lovely Claudia, a reporter who smells a good story and who just happens to be the daughter of a count. As the bodies of more missing booksellers are found floating in the Seine, Hugo finally gets a police detective on his side. The chase is on! VERDICT Pryor's steady and engrossing debut combines Sherlockian puzzle solving with Eric Ambler-like spy intrigue. With a cast of characters you want to know better and a storyline cloaked in World War II betrayals (think Nazi collaborators), the author winningly blends contemporary crime with historical topics. Pair with Cara Black's Aimee Leduc series for both locale and tone. [See also Claude Izner's Parisian bookseller-themed historical, In the Shadows of Paris, in Series Lineup.]

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