The Dark Edge of Night
A Henri Lefort Mystery
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- £8.99
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- £8.99
Publisher Description
“Sharp eyed and sharp mouthed police detective”* Henri Lefort, is determined to solve homicides and uncover any German conspiracies threatening France—in Mark Pryor’s next World War II mystery, The Dark Edge of Night.
Winter 1940: With soldiers parading down the Avenue des Champs-Élysées, Nazi flags dangling from the Arc de Triomphe, and the Eiffel Tower defaced with German propaganda, Parisians have little to celebrate as Christmas approaches. Police Inspector Henri Lefort’s wishes for a quiet holiday season are dashed when the Gestapo orders him to investigate the disappearance of Dr. Viktor Brandt, a neurologist involved in a secret project at one of Paris’s hospitals.
Being forced onto a missing persons case for the enemy doesn’t deter Henri from conducting his real job. A Frenchman has been beaten to death in what appears to be a botched burglary, and catching a killer is more important than locating a wayward scientist. But when Henri learns that the victim’s brother is a doctor who worked at the same hospital as the missing German, his investigation takes a disturbing turn.
Uncovering a relationship between the two men—one that would not be tolerated by the Third Reich—Henri must tread carefully. And when he discovers that Dr. Brandt’s experimental work is connected to groups of children being taken from orphanages, Henri risks bringing the wrath of both the SS and the Gestapo upon himself and everyone he loves.
*New York Times bestselling author Cara Black
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
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.
