THE DARK EDGE OF NIGHT

Murder and mayhem in Nazi-occupied Paris.

Success is a double-edged sword for detective Henri Lefort. As one of the few remaining police officers in Paris, he can continue his work keeping the peace for the occupied French only if he can also solve cases for the Germans. When Dr. Andreas von Rauch, who’s clearly an important figure in Nazi medical research, wants Henri’s help finding Dr. Viktor Brandt, a missing colleague, Henri can hardly say “non.” But his good friend Princess Marie Bonaparte wants him to turn his attention to the apparent kidnappings of young charges from a local children’s home. And of course there are still routine police cases to be solved, like the beating death of Edouard Grabbin, whose brother, Dr. Jean Grabbin, whisks his corpse underground almost before it’s cold. Nicola Prehn, administrative assistant at the prefecture and secretly Henri’s sister, weighs in on Princess Mimi’s side, but the consequences of Henri’s failure to solve von Rauch’s case would be severe. Balancing the challenges of his detective’s job with the more prosaic problems of finding eggs and cheese in an occupied city, Pryor creates a vivid picture of life in wartime Paris, a place where the struggle for good over evil may require compromise but must never be abandoned.

It takes a village, but in the end, justice triumphs. A satisfying puzzle in a carefully crafted setting.