A Blood Red Morning (Henri Lefort Mysteries, 3)
On New Year’s Eve morning in 1940, a Frenchman is shot dead right outside police inspector Henri Lefort’s apartment building. Lefort heard and saw nothing and is assigned the case. He soon learns the dead man collaborated with Germans. To curry favor, earn money, or get decent food, many Parisians write secret letters to the Nazis about real or invented offenses by unfavored neighbors, even family members. The dead man, a former banker, had been hired by Germans to pursue such a letter or letters—right to Lefort’s building. A tenant there seems to be under Nazi investigation and might be the banker’s killer. The violations could range from prostitution to food smuggling to printing anti-German news leaflets. Other tenants might have turned in the offenders.
Lefort struggles to find food and keep his sanity while pursuing unsolved real crimes with Nazis watching his every step. On this new case, high-up Nazis suspect Lefort himself might be helping petty law-breakers, or that he shot the snitch. He is clever, experienced, and confident, at times too confident, especially when explaining himself to Nazis while trying to shield his neighbors and friends from torture and death.
Pryor tells the story through Lefort’s first-person view, pulling readers into the detective’s every move. He struggles with what to do about a “righteous” killing or local Frenchmen spying on other Frenchmen and collaborating with Germans. Pryor’s descriptions of Nazi operators and methods are at times so realistic it chills the soul. Lefort and others are powerless to stop them. At best, they pretend to mind their own business while protecting their countrymen. Recommended for anyone interested in a well-done gritty murder mystery under the smothering blanket of Nazi-occupied Paris.
