A Blood Red Morning: A Henri Lefort Mystery

Pryor’s vivid third WWII-era whodunit featuring Henri Lefort (after The Dark Edge of Night) finds the French police detective investigating a crime that hits particularly close to home. After Lefort sleeps through a shooting on the doorstep of his Paris apartment building, he’s assigned to investigate. The victim is Guy Remillon, a banker who lost his job when the Nazis took over the city and who then began working for the SS, investigating tips sent by French citizens hoping to have their neighbors arrested or fined. The work made Remillon a laundry list of enemies, but Lefort gets a strong lead when one of his neighbors reports seeing the building’s busybody toss something out a window soon after the crime. However, when Lefort learns that a Nazi official removed a piece of paper from Remillon’s belongings, he worries that investigating the murder with his usual diligence could put him in the crosshairs of the SS. Pryor generates nerve-shredding tension with Lefort’s tightrope walk, and he streamlines the plotting more effectively than in the previous installment. This series merits a long run. (Aug.)