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Showing posts with label Mark Pryor. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mark Pryor. Show all posts

Tuesday, August 23, 2022

Book Review-The Bookseller By Mark Pryor

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.