Paris in the Dark by Pulitzer Prize-winner Robert Olen Butler is the fourth book in the Christopher Marlowe Cobb series—a fleetly plotted but engaging historical mystery with political and cultural issues that resonate deeply today. For some reason, I always thought historical fiction would be less compelling because we already know what happens. Now that I have…
Every Wednesday, we here at Criminal Element will put together a list of Staff Picks of the books that published the day before—sharing the ones that we are looking forward to reading the most! This week, we get some great cozies, a couple of kickass thrillers, and a ridiculous anthology edited by Lawrence Block and…
The Hot Country by Robert Olen Butler is a historical crime novel set in early-20th-century Mexico (available October 2, 2012). When we meet Christopher Marlowe “Kit” Cobb, war correspondent for a Chicago newspaper, he’s in Veracruz, Mexico. The nation is in turmoil. General Victoriano Huerta, who seized power during a recent coup, is running things,…
