Mark Pryor, The Reluctant Matador

Mark Pryor, The Reluctant Matador
Seventh Street Books © 2015 Mark Pryor
ISBN 978-1-63388-002-3

Hugo Marston, head of security for the U.S. Embassy in Paris finds himself in an unusual situation.  The step-daughter (Amy Dreiss) of Marston’s good friend (and former co-worker Bart Denum has come to Paris to spend a a few months and has arranged to meet Marston for breakfast.  But she does not show up.  And she’s not answering her cell phone and her voicemail box is full.  And his closest friend (and also occasional co-worker) Tom Green seems to have fallen off the wagon.  After bailing Tom out, he heads to Amy’s apartment to see what’s up.  There, he encounters Emily, an acquaintance of Amy’s, who has not seen (or heard from) her for several days, and she’s spooked by Marston’s arrival. 

Emily, who works as a secretary in a modelling agency, tells Marston that Amy has been looking for work as a model, and points him to a club in the Pigalle district where Amy has apparently made an appointment to talk with someone about work.  The club turns out to be a strip club.  Marston and Green check out Amy’s apartment, finding nothing.  Marston calls his assistant, asks him to look up Amy’s passport number, and check to see whether she—or her passport—has been noticed in another country.  Turns out that Amy (or her passport) has cleared immigration in Madrid.  The trail leads Marston (and Green) to Barcelona (he’s taken time off from his job to pursue this).

In Barcelona, things get even more confusing.  In Barcelona, it appears that Amy has at least spoked to people in a tourist/guide business about a job.  Marston and Green take a look there, and, finding no one home, let themselves in for a look around, and trip the security system.  A subsequent escapade sees then arrested.  But they wind up working closely with the police in Barcelona on a murder that leads to a potential human trafficking operation.

Pryor handles the complications of this well, and does what seems to me to be an excellent job with his settings.  The investigation, even if it proceeds fairly slowly for most of the book, also seems to fit with how an actual investigation would play out.  I do think the pacing is a bit slow, and that there are a lot of coincidences that aid and abet Marston and the Barcelona police.  And a lot of banter, particularly between Marston and Green, doesn't much advance the story.  Overall, a nice addition to this series (this is the fifth book).  I’ve enjoyed them all so far (this one is a bit below the first four), and am looking forward to reading #6.