The Crypt Thief: A Hugo Marston Novel

It's summer in Paris, the city is full of tourists, mostly Americans, and all is right with Hugo Marston's world—until a young couple is shot dead in front of Jim Morrison's grave in the famous Père Lachaise cemetery.

The murderer leaves a glass replica of a scarab beetle with the bodies, steals the bones of a legendary Moulin Rouge dancer, and disappears without getting caught on film by any of the security cameras surrounding the cemetery.

Even odder than the murderer's seeming invisibility is the fact that he steals only half the dancer's bones from her crypt. Despite the fact the cemetery is now locked down and patrolled by the French police, the murderer returns unseen the next night and steals the bones of still another long dead Moulin Rouge can-can dancer.

Normally, this would constitute a case for the French police, but one of the dead tourists is not only an American, but the son of a prominent U.S. senator. Another complication arises when the young man's female companion is not only found with a forged Egyptian passport, but is identified as a close friend of a suspected terrorist.

Hugo Marston, Head of Security at the United States Embassy, is ordered to help with investigation under the direction of his old friend and temporary roommate, Tom Green. A former agent, now "consultant" with the CIA, Tom spends his days and nights either drunk or hung over. Hugo doesn't know the cause of Tom's sudden onset alcoholism, but he no longer trusts his friend's judgment.

Once the background of the dead woman is discovered, both the French and the CIA conclude that both victims were murdered by terrorists. Everyone is convinced of it, including the senator—everyone, that is, except Hugo.

Hugo examines of the remains of the female victim seeking clues ". . . to solve the puzzle that had put this young woman on a metal tray." His examination of both the body and the circumstances of her death leads Hugo to a different theory. As a former profiler for the FBI, he believes the murderer is not a terrorist, but a garden-variety psychopath.

What terrorist would steal bones from the crypts of dead can-can dancers and leave a glass scarab in the tombs? What kind of terrorist is so bad a marksman he requires several shots to kill his victims? What terrorist uses a .22 pistol? For that matter, what terrorist lurks in a deserted cemetery at night?

When fresh bodies begin turning up with tattoos peeled from their corpses, Hugo knows he is right. The Scarab, as Hugo calls the murderer, is a psychopath engaged in a ritual of death and resurrection that will soon require another living sacrifice.

Minor characters introduced in the first Hugo Marston novel, The Bookseller, again provide a supporting cast. Raul Garcia, a Paris policeman who suffers from both car sickness and air sickness, accompanies Hugo to a small French village to confront and capture the Scarab, an attempt that leaves both men trapped in a burning house. In one of the book's most suspenseful scenes, Hugo escapes with a badly injured Garcia and again chases the Scarab.

Although there are other action scenes in the book (the final and climactic scenes are fully engaging), the pace of the suspense could be tighter, providing more of a sense of threat to Hugo. The reader doesn't break a sweat worrying about the main character until the last 50 pages, a little late for this genre where one expects a constant, unremitting acceleration of suspense.

Although The Crypt Thief has an imaginative plot and a strong sense of place, Hugo Marston lacks the angst and personality flaws that allow readers to identify with him. Hugo is a more reserved, objective character that will appeal to an audience seeking a calmer reading experience (imagine the law enforcement protagonist in an Agatha Christie mystery) than they would find in a novel by Ted Dekker or Andrew Gross, Karin Slaughter or Tami Hoag.

Although well-written and with an adequate plot, neither writing nor plotting compensates for the lack of heart-stopping suspense and a flawed, sympathetic protagonist. On a scale of one to five, The Crypt Thief rates a three and a half.