Action packed

The latest Hugh Marston mystery by Mark Pryor, The Book Artist, ranks among the best in the series. Just 268 pages long, it is packed with action because Marston, a former FBI agent now security chief for the U.S. embassy in Paris, has three problems to deal with, not just one.

A beautiful American artist, gaining attention for her sculptures created from books, is found murdered at a Paris art gallery, and Marston’s girlfriend is arrested for the crime after her DNA is found at the scene. He is certain she is not guilty of the crime, but how to explain that DNA evidence? This may actually be the most impressive bit of  detective work in the novel.

Then comes the matter of finding the real killer, after first getting the Paris police officer in charge of the case to accept his help.

As for the third problem, this involves a dying man with a grudge against both Marston and his unorthodox buddy, Tom Green. He plans to kill Tom in Amsterdam, then pick off Marston at his friend’s Paris burial.

All this means that once Pryor gets the plot moving, which takes a few chapters, it rolls like a piano going downhill in a Laurel and Hardy movie. Except not that funny.