The Paris Librarian
Ratings3
Average rating3.7
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 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. The reason: they may indicate that the actress had aided the Resistance in frequent trips to France toward 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. From the Trade Paperback edition.
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A book with Paris and libraries? I can't pass that up, even if it is a mystery (I can never figure mysteries out).
My husband loves mysteries. A sign of a good mystery is that you can only figure a little bit of it out. If that's true, then this is a good mystery. I figured out the bad guy, but I didn't figure out the reasons.
It's the story of Hugo Marston who works in Paris as security for the embassy. One of his friends dies unexpectedly in a locked room at the American museum where he works. Hugo gets involved.
Good fun.
Hmmm... i let this one sit for about a week after reading it. Murder mysteries is one of my favorites, but I would not recommend this one. It was a recommendation by a barista in a Barnes&Noble Starbucks, who said she loved it. It followed all the prescriptions of the genre, but was long on plot and short on depth and interest.
[Interrupt for a general announcement: this is the third time I type this review because I lost the first two. WTF, Goodreads?]
1) Protagonist detective is likable enough.
2) Other characters were fine but almost none was truly three-dimensional or had lives of their own, other than in the service of the plot.
3) Props to the author for strong women, a character trait sketched very superficially, and which made the lack of depth even more annoying.
4) The writing was smooth enough, to the point where I'm wondering if it was authored by a human or a Google DeepMind AI?
5) Most annoying was that each French phrase, clearly added for atmosphere, was translated into English, which was nearly obnoxious and interrupted the train of reading. If you're going to use French but not trust your readers to figure it out (most of these were no more than 5-word easy, obvious phrases), then don't bother.
So... no P.D. James here, nor even Agatha Christie or any of the other grand dames of crime.
I finished it because—inertia—and give it a solid meh.
