Busman's holiday

Fictional sleuths, whether amateur or professional, are rarely witnesses to the crimes they investigate, but such is the case in The Bookseller, the first novel (published in 2012) in the Hugo Marston mystery series written by Mark Pryor.

Marston is actually a professional sleuth operating as an amateur. A former FBI agent from Texas, he now works in Paris as head of security at the U.S. Embassy. Investigating French crimes is hardly in his job description, but one day at the start of his vacation he buys some books from an old bookseller who operates his small business from a stall on the street. Before he leaves he witnesses the bookseller being taken away against his will. But what to Marston's eye seems like an obvious kidnapping, the French police write off as just a man leaving with friends, never mind that someone who clearly knows nothing about books is running the bookstall the next day.

Marston had thought he might use his vacation to return to Texas to try to rekindle his relationship with his ex-wife, but she lets him know it would be a wasted trip. Besides he now has a disappearance to investigate, and he soon meets a woman who may help him forget his wife. But Claudia turns out to be the daughter of one of the wealthiest men in Paris, a man who doesn't want his daughter getting serious with a middle-class American. Then the father turns out to be both a collector of rare books and a man with secrets, raising the possibility that he could somehow be involved in the bookseller's disappearance. Was his meeting Claudia more than just a happy accident?

Helping in the unofficial probe of this unofficial crime is Tom, Marston's old friend and a former CIA agent. Together they make progress, but not before bodies start piling up, each that of a Paris street vendor. Finally the police get involved.

The Bookseller proves to be an exciting, fast-paced mystery with intriguing characters. It does, however, lose much of its credibility when a French police captain allows Marston and his friend to take the lead in his investigation. This didn't seem very likely in the days of Hercule Poirot, and it's even less so now.