The Assassin in the Marais: A Victor Legris Mystery

Set in Paris in 1892, the fourth Victor Legris mystery (after 2010's The Montmartre Investigation) from the pseudonymous Izner (sisters Liliane Korb and Laurence Lef%C3%A8vre) fails to make the most of the plot's potential. As Paris is beset by anarchist bombings, Victor, a bookseller, has an apparently unrelated crime to investigate%E2%80%94a break-in at the apartment of his fellow bookseller, Kenji Mori. Oddly, the only objects missing are two books and a goblet made from a monkey's skullcap. A zoologist, Antoine du Houssoye, tries to get in touch with Kenji after the theft, at the direction of a woman who was fatally shot a week earlier, but before the two men can connect, du Houssoye is also murdered. The inquiry into the multiple murders never really picks up steam, and the search for the missing goblet fails to maintain suspense. (Sept.)