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Books like Extraordinary People

Extraordinary People

2007Peter May

3.9/5

This is the first book in a six-part series with Enzo MacLeod the main character. He grew up in Scotland, son of an Italian mother and a Scottish father and had a successful career as a Forensic Scientist with a wife and young daughter. A series of events led him to France where he was Professor of Biology in an institute in Cahors, near Paris.Twenty years later, a wager throws him head first into a 10-year-old mystery involving the disappearance of a well-known, highly intelligent, and very popular man with connections in high places in government.This is a well mapped-out and fascinating mystery involving a series of trunks holding various obscure clues that Enzo must put together to lead him to the next trunk of clues. I enjoyed the treasure hunt that ensued, and how Enzo and the people he recruited worked with the clues in the trunks to determine where the next one would be. Eventually the mystery is solved where it began – in the catacombs of Paris where the action and dangers accelerated to a resounding crescendo.I enjoyed this book a lot for its story, although I have not yet warmed up completely to Enzo. At one point he thinks to himself, (not a direct quote): “Here I am 50 years old and feel like when I was 15.” He meant awkward, mostly, but it was more than that. His emotional maturity, although it did seem to grow through the novel, felt adolescent to me at times. This was a surprise because it is not the kind of lead character I would normally associate with Peter May’s writing.However, having said that, I do expect to see more maturity and depth to this character as the series progresses, and I look forward to the next one with great anticipation.This was a buddy read with my Goodreads friend Sue D who also enjoys Peter May’s writing, and I very much enjoyed our discussions as we read.

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