Night Gate (The Enzo Files Book 7) - Mystery Thriller Novel for Adults - Perfect for Late Night Reading & Book Club Discussions

What a surprise! We thought the series of mysteries featuring forensic science professor Enzo McCleod came to a dramatic conclusion in 2017. But Enzo wasn’t finished. Like all of the Enzo books, the pacing is fast, and the pages turn very quickly. Plan ahead because there is a point where you will not want to stop reading. If you are at 70% and it’s getting late, you might want to turn out your light or close the Kindle because it will otherwise be a very late night. This story could stand alone, but all the continuing characters are back, and you will not understand the parts of the book that are updating them if you have not read the previous books. The book opens with a particularly gruesome murder in contemporary time. Enzo was nearby because he had been invited to consult when a tree blew down and exposed the remains of a murdered Nazi officer. The small-town police welcome his help on the new murder. The story alternates between Enzo’s point of view in contemporary time and the point of view during WWII of Georgette Pignal a young French-English woman who was recruited by DeGaulle to personally protect the Mona Lisa from the Germans trying to seize it for Hitler and the Germans trying to seize it for Goring. There are awkward and deliberately obscured storyteller interludes that introduce the sequences from the 1940s and some also necessary but tedious diary entries that serve the same purpose in transferring information from the historic characters to the contemporary characters. There are interesting details about the actions taken by the French to preserve and remove the treasures of the Louvre before and after occupation by the Germans. The book includes real people and actual events with the fictional story woven around that structure. One aspect that I found intriguing is that it is the first book that I have read that is set during the pandemic. Face masks, hand sanitizer, lockdowns, etc. are part of the narrative. He does not dwell on the pandemic, but it does complicate the investigation. Enzo is older, but not much wiser as he finds himself in risky situations with some regularity. The tension level can be high. Most of the action is in France near Cahors with some scenes in the Outer Hebrides (which is also the setting of May’s Lewis series), Paris, and Berlin. The detailed descriptions of the settings are evocative, and you will feel immersed in them. This book is an excellent thriller and a solid five stars, although I might deduct half a star just because of the storytelling construct.