The Sorbonne Affair by Mark Pryor
Author Mark Pryor has the good grace to present The Sorbonne Affair, the latest in this Hugo Marston series, once every calendar year. This book is the seventh in the series, which commenced in 2012 with The Bookseller (the title of which hooked me in immediately).
It’s a real pleasure to acquire the latest in a series, to sit and read avidly. The unusual protagonist in this series is Hugo, the head of security for the American embassy in Paris. A Texan by birth, a Francophile by heart, he walks the fine line of providing security and investigating crimes where US citizens are involved. A former FBI special agent and profiler, his best friend is currently with the CIA and the American ambassador is, also, ex-CIA. Given the location of Paris within central Europe and the never-ending geo-political intrigues surrounding and involving the USA, Hugo, his friend Tom and his boss the Ambassador find themselves consistently busy, aiding US citizens. Hugo also deals amicably with the French police, various European policing agencies and even the persistent French press.
The Sorbonne Affair involves a famous American romance author who is in Paris to write her new novel and also teach a master class in writing. The murders and bodies start mounting up almost on a daily basis, leaving Hugo and his French police counterparts scrambling to unravel the mystery before anyone else is killed.
Mark Pryor employs a well-educated writing style. Every sentence is a pleasure to read. The pace, for a crime thriller, is steady and keeps moving. Each novel can be read in isolation and doesn’t really need prior knowledge of the previous works in order to carry the reader forward – given that we must wait a year between installments, that’s a blessing in itself.
Recommended for mystery and crime readers, especially those who love Paris and France.
Find in The Sorbonne Affair by Mark Pryor the SMSA Library Catalogue
Belinda Coombs
Member of the SMSA Mystery & Crime Readers Group
Related Reviews
The Book Seller
Reviewed by Belinda Coombs
The Paris Librarian
Reviewed by Belinda Coombs
