read 2023

In the introduction to this book Howard Engel is described as a former journalist and broadcaster who is now well known as the writer of the Benny Cooperman mysteries. I've read several of those mysteries and while I love the character of Benny I've never found the mysteries to be all that engaging. Now along comes Murder in Montparnasse and I have to say the mystery is most intriguing but the sleuth is no Benny Cooperman. I guess I'll have to read some more Engel mysteries to see if he ever manages to excel at both in the same volume.

Michael Ward is a Canadian journalist working for the Paris office of a news agency in 1925. He encounters Jason Waddington early in his sojourn and they become fast friends. Jason is American but worked in Toronto at one time and knows many of the same people that Michael does. It's pretty obvious from the outset that Jason is a thinly disguised Ernest Hemingway. Jason has decided to write full time and he has had some success but he's pretty low on money. When you consider he has a wife and baby to support it's hard to see how he manages to spend as much time as he does in bars and restaurants. He introduces Michael to all his friends, some of whom are quite famous writers and painters. One of the women on the fringes is Laure, a teacher and translator. Laure and Michael have a passionate one night stand and then Laure ignores Michael. Michael is besotted and starts following Laure. He see Laure and Jason having a spirited discussion one night and then Laure leaves. Shortly after Michael finds Laure's purse in the street and he fears the worst. His fears are realized when it is announced that Laure has been murdered and that it appears that a serial killer is responsible. Michael has his doubts and starts to do some investigation on his own. He thinks it is one of the people in the small expat community who is responsible. Before he can determine if that is true the serial killer has to be stopped.

Paris is the true star of this book. Imagine walking in the park and having Alice B. Toklas' dog start attacking your trousers. Or running into James Joyce at dinner in a restaurant. It's the stuff of dreams. Engel has caught what I think is the true essence of this time and place (although of course I can't be sure).

I've never read much Hemingway but if I was a fan I'm sure I would have found this book even more fascinating. Just like Jason Waddington, Hemingway lost several years worth of manuscripts when he was in Paris in the 1920's. As the back cover says "Murder in Montparnasse offers a credible explanation for a puzzle that has plagued literary sleuths for decades: What really happened to the lost Hemingway manuscripts?" If that doesn't hook the Hemingway fan, I don't know what will. ( )

The crimes that Jack de Paris has been committing, similar to London's Jack the Ripper, form the background of this story set in 1925 Paris among the literary and artistic elite of the day. When Canadian journalist Mike Ward arrived in Paris he met Jason Waddington, the character based on the unnamed but recognizable Hemingway. Wilson and Georgia O'Donnell, based on F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald, also feature in the story. Appearing under their real names are lesser characters such as James Joyce, Ezra Pound, Gertrude Stein, Alice Toklas and others. The reader can make a safe assumption that none of these famous names end up as suspects. Naturally, Hemingway's lost suitcase of manuscripts features strongly in the story. Engel portrays an evocative and captivating Paris, just as it might have been. The idea is a bit dated, and although not a brilliant mystery, it is reasonably entertaining. ( )