I had very high hopes for this book. To say that I was disappointed is the understatement of the year.
I had sought out this book because I had read some positive
recommendations through my querying Librarything.com.
It had all the earmarks for a great mystery, at least containing the elements
that would interest me: it is set in Paris, it involves books, and it involves
intrigue and crime solving.
Since it is set in Paris, I also expected to get a travelog:
descriptions of all thing Parisian, the arts, the food, the atmosphere, the
feel of Paris. I did get all that, which was the part of the book that drew me in. That was
what made me stick with the book for as long as I did.
Mark Pryor has been writing the Hugo Marston series for a
while: there are nine volumes in this series. The Bookseller is
first book, as such, I allowed certain amount of rough edges as Pryor is
presumably working on his chops during this first foray.
I have decided, however, to not pursue this series mainly
because I was disappointed with the first one.
The book starts off auspiciously enough with our hero, Hugo
Marston, walking down to the Seine and meeting with his friend Max. The
descriptions of the Paris Street scenes were evocative, and the descriptions of
the main protagonist drew me in and kept me interested. Pryor certainly was not
messing around when he starts the story with a bang and a lot of action. He was
able to sustain my interest for a long while as he set the scene and the
parameters of Hugo Marston’s world. There's
certainly plenty of action, but the actions were written in such a cursory way
that the reader seemed to be prodded along by the author to keep going. It was
akin to reading by checking off the boxes in a list. This felt like a strategy by the author to sustain the narrative, and
keep the reader focused. There's plenty of action, each element of the story came
along at a breakneck pace, which is not a complaint, as I am used to that
pacing. The problem is that there just doesn't seem to be any attempt at spinning a yarn, there was no storytelling,
just a death march through the myriad of independent events. It felt like the author
was distributing all the pertinent information he can conjure up in his
imagination quickly so that he can race to the ending. It made me feel like being
rushed through a list of chores that might eventually build up to a worthy denouement.
I didn't appreciate being rushed along while not being intellectually entertained.
Since it is a murder mystery,
there isn't much character development, and not much was expected. Many
characters were introduced and taken away, the reader was able to quickly integrate
them into the story and then moved on. Pryor did a good job putting these
characters in context with the story.
Even though the action came at a breakneck pace, the pace
did not allow any deeper purpose to
emerge. The reader was never allowed to let the hooks of the plot to grab them
and wonder about the crime. Or even
think about trying to solve the crime. It
was just an action movie on paper.
I am disappointed because I was hoping that this was going
to be a series that I could latch onto. Perhaps it's because I've been spoiled
by some of the stellar series that I have been reading and made me expect that
all mysteries are as well developed.
This book is the second in a row that I've chosen to read
which left me cold. It was just not my cup of tea and I never gain a lot of
traction with the book or the main character. I usually do a marathon read
towards the end of the mystery fictions because I was motivated to find out the
ending. I did a marathon read for this book because I just wanted to get it
over with.
Although I am still curious about this character: Hugo Marston, I am not curious enough to jump
into the second book. I will just let sleeping dogs lie until my feelings become more lenient about the shortcomings of the
first book.
