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Extraordinary People: The First of the Enzo Files    by Peter May Amazon.com order for
Extraordinary People
by Peter May
Order:  USA  Can
Poisoned Pen, 2006 (2006)
Hardcover
* *   Reviewed by Mary Ann Smyth

Peter May's Extraordinary People is an extraordinary novel. It's well-crafted with a scavenger hunt at the forefront – a hunt to find the scattered body parts of a man who disappeared ten years previously. Enzo Macleod, an expat from Scotland now living in France, bets friends that he can discover the fate of the missing man.

Little did he know there was more than one murderer and that his own life and that of his daughter would end up on the line. His background in forensics, Enzo teaches biology at a second rate college in Toulouse. Years before, he had left his wife and small daughter to marry a French woman. His new wife died in childbirth and he has since spent his time and energy raising his second daughter.

Anyone interested in Paris will delight in the verbal map that Enzo follows as he chases clues left with each body part he uncovers. Even more intriguing is the discovery he makes that there are extensive catacombs beneath the sewers of Paris. Action escalates at every turn and becomes breathtaking at the denouement.

The characters are strong and well-defined. Their interaction is pivotal to the storyline and winds around the action as though they were woven from the same cloth. This is a really good read. And I understand the author is already working on a sequel. Good news.

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