Robert Olen Butler has written a sexy historical thriller, Paris in the Dark (Grove Atlantic, $26.00). It’s a fast read with three or four well-drawn characters. Butler loves to write in very short sentences.
And paragraphs.
And dialogue.
Sometimes it gets annoying but after all he has won a Pulitzer Prize.
Kit Cobb is in Paris in 1915, ostensibly as a war correspondent for a Chicago paper. His night job is operating as a spy for the American ambassador who wants badly to get the U.S. into the war. Only, President Wilson doesn’t, nor do the American people at that point in the slaughter. Kit speaks fluent French and has seen action and death before in hotspots around the world. He sports a dueling scar on one cheek which generates instant credibility with Germans and quick interest from women.
A bomb goes off in a Paris restaurant, sending a disembodied arm flying by him. The French secret service blames Germany and rather than use their own spies enlist Kit to check out a German expat living in a German section of Paris. The government wants the killer found and terminated. It helps that Cobb is also fluent in German and grew up the son of an actress, making him great at impersonation.
Kit buys everyone in the last German bar, secretly operating in Paris, a round of real Bavarian beer and is instantly one of the Deutsche boys. He finds the purported bomber, trails him, but gets distracted from immediately killing the terrorist, by what else?
A beautiful American nurse working in a hospital treating wounded soldiers. The courtship and seduction travel at warp speed and one has to wonder if this really happened in 1915, pre-sexual revolution and pre-pill. But I guess humanity hasn’t changed all that much. Nevertheless, the short buildup is well-written, stunningly so, and the reader will spend the rest of the book hoping Nurse Pickering, from Massachusetts, doesn’t herself become a victim.
For as it turns out, the lead the French police furnish Kit is a dead end. The search for the true bomber turns into a pretty good twist, as Cobb begins to suspect fellow Americans, who may also have an interest in Nurse Pickering. One thing about Kit—he doesn’t take prisoners. The trail leads all through central Paris, even to Soissons near the trenches. Any lover of France will enjoy the geography and descriptions of cobbled streets and the eerie catacombs.
Butler does a good job exploring his character’s thoughts and lets his reader play detective. It’s a slow Sunday read or for a short weekend. Butler has turned out several different genres and all to success. As a thriller writer I’d give him a B. For historical accuracy an A-, only because of the exaggeration of American war lust in 1915.
Steve E Clark as seen in the New York Times is Author of Justice Is for the Lonely and Justice Is for the Deserving, Kristen Kerry Novels Of Suspense. Steve is a 2017 NY Big Book Award winner and a 2018 Independent Book Awards recepient. You can purchase his books via https://steveclarkauthor.com/buy-the-book or request it at your local book store. Want to know more about Steve Clark, read more reviews or speak directly with Steve? Learn more about Steve at SteveClarkAuthor.com
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