A marked hero in his police career, Commandant Paul Mazarelle has moved on and has a new case to work with. A man was found murdered, hanging upside down under a bridge. In his pocket, The Hanged Man tarot card. And so, the hunt begins for a murderer hiding somewhere in the street of Paris.
I loved that this book, set in Paris, includes the language throughout mixed in like confetti with the English of the narration. The references to all the geographical locations really added to the feeling of being there. Personally, I have never been to Paris, but with the imagery and descriptions paired with my knowledge of the city, I was able to picture the setting and immerse myself in it.
Mazarelle and his partners, Maurice and Jeannot, are great complaints of each other. I really liked their character development throughout. They are not just like each other and bring their own biases, talents and faults to the table. This is a necessity when throughout the investigation nothing is as it seems.
Their boss, Coudert, doesn’t really care if an innocent person is convicted as long as the case gets wrapped up nicely, and, hey, this guy no one really likes looks like a great scapegoat. So, with the trial approaching, the case is on a time crunch. This added to the anxiousness that they face, especially when nothing is going in their favor. It also creates some suspicion on why is this petty criminal going to take the fall for a murder?
I appreciated the complexity of the case. The frequent directional changes as new evidence is discovered. The idea that there is way more to the story is to be expected in a book like this, but there were times where I was really surprised by what they were uncovering. Crime dramas would be slightly boring if everything was exactly as it seemed. But we go from a thinking that it’s a personal murder, to a neo-nazi hate crime, to dirty cops, to……. I’ll just leave it here.
As a new piece of evidence is uncovered, there are more questions than answers. Evidence begins to link other crimes to this murder and then of course, more murders are committed. The characters, good and bad, played masterfully off each other; all sides trying to one up the other. The peripheral characters that serve both sides are critical to the progression of the plot in this book, and I loved how it was done. With my own college degree in Journalism and Mass Communications, I loved the role that the magazine played. I won’t say anything more about it.
Clearly, I’m not going to spoil the ending, but I will say that just like the entire investigation leading up to it, there was no way this was going to be a conclusion with a pretty bow tied to it.
I really enjoyed this book, and highly recommend it if you are looking to escape to Paris for a little murder mystery. It wasn’t predictable, and it kept me guessing throughout.
I loved that this book, set in Paris, includes the language throughout mixed in like confetti with the English of the narration. The references to all the geographical locations really added to the feeling of being there. Personally, I have never been to Paris, but with the imagery and descriptions paired with my knowledge of the city, I was able to picture the setting and immerse myself in it.
Mazarelle and his partners, Maurice and Jeannot, are great complaints of each other. I really liked their character development throughout. They are not just like each other and bring their own biases, talents and faults to the table. This is a necessity when throughout the investigation nothing is as it seems.
Their boss, Coudert, doesn’t really care if an innocent person is convicted as long as the case gets wrapped up nicely, and, hey, this guy no one really likes looks like a great scapegoat. So, with the trial approaching, the case is on a time crunch. This added to the anxiousness that they face, especially when nothing is going in their favor. It also creates some suspicion on why is this petty criminal going to take the fall for a murder?
I appreciated the complexity of the case. The frequent directional changes as new evidence is discovered. The idea that there is way more to the story is to be expected in a book like this, but there were times where I was really surprised by what they were uncovering. Crime dramas would be slightly boring if everything was exactly as it seemed. But we go from a thinking that it’s a personal murder, to a neo-nazi hate crime, to dirty cops, to……. I’ll just leave it here.
As a new piece of evidence is uncovered, there are more questions than answers. Evidence begins to link other crimes to this murder and then of course, more murders are committed. The characters, good and bad, played masterfully off each other; all sides trying to one up the other. The peripheral characters that serve both sides are critical to the progression of the plot in this book, and I loved how it was done. With my own college degree in Journalism and Mass Communications, I loved the role that the magazine played. I won’t say anything more about it.
Clearly, I’m not going to spoil the ending, but I will say that just like the entire investigation leading up to it, there was no way this was going to be a conclusion with a pretty bow tied to it.
I really enjoyed this book, and highly recommend it if you are looking to escape to Paris for a little murder mystery. It wasn’t predictable, and it kept me guessing throughout.