July 3, 2023
The uneven second installment in Pryor’s WWII-set historical series (following 2022’s Die Around Sundown) finds police detective Henri Lefort investigating two cases in occupied 1940 Paris. The first, and most pressing, involves the death of a Frenchman during what appears to be a botched robbery; the second has been thrust on Lefort by the Gestapo, and concerns the disappearance of a doctor who was working on a mysterious project for the Nazis. While exploring some of Paris’s seedier neighborhoods, Henri connects the doctor’s disappearance to a series of disturbing missing children’s cases, and the narrative’s disparate strands begin to converge. Before long, he’s caught in a bind that will force him to either let a killer remain at large or risk angering the SS. A subplot involving a psychoanalyst, Napoleon Bonaparte’s great-grand-niece, and Henri’s treatment for a rare hearing disorder clutter the otherwise-enticing story and feel like unwelcome hangers-on from the series launch. Henri’s inner conflicts about upholding the law while living under Nazi rule, though, are the stuff of gripping drama, and Pryor’s attention to historical detail is first-rate. This isn’t a home run, but WWII buffs will find plenty to latch onto. Agent: Ann Collette, Rees Literary.