The blood promise

An old sea chest full of hidden compartments contains explosive secrets from 1795 in this third Hugo Marston mystery. Marston, head of security at the American embassy in Paris, spots the chest at a country estate where he's babysitting isolationist U.S. Senator Charles Lake, a presidential hopeful, who's on a diplomatic mission. By the time the chest is linked to an unsolved burglary and murder, there have been more killings, one of them of a police officer, and Marston is working with French authorities and his friend and former FBI colleague Tom Green, who uses his CIA contacts when legitimate means are lacking. Pryor seems to have hit his stride in this series, as he adroitly juxtaposes the light banter between Marston and Green with some scenes of intense emotion, particularly those detailing Marston's heartfelt reaction to the death of a friend and those exploring a transsexual police officer's background. And, all the while, the suspense ramps up. Top-notch mystery in a skillfully delineated Parisian setting.--Leber, Michele Copyright 2010 Booklist

In Pryor's engaging third Hugo Marston novel (after 2012's The Bookseller), Hugo, a regional security officer at the American embassy in Paris, is less than thrilled to learn that he must babysit Charles Lake, a U.S. senator and presidential hopeful, at the chateau of the aristocratic Tourville family outside Paris. An isolationist, Lake is an unlikely official to be charged with sensitive diplomatic negotiations between France and the U.S. regarding the French island of Guadeloupe. When Lake is drugged at dinner and claims that intruders broke into his room and searched his papers, Hugo's detective friend, Raul Garcia, discovers that one of the distinguished guests is linked to an unsolved murder. Stonewalling by the Tourvilles and subsequent killings tell Hugo that a missing antique chest may hold the key to the case. Despite some clumsy treatment of character details that are irrelevant to the plot, the cliffhanger chapter endings and an exciting chase involving the Queen Mary II liner keep the reader riveted. Agent: Ann Collette, Rees Literary Agency. (Jan.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.