Die Around Sundown

Narrator P. J. Ochlan impressively portrays the international cast of characters in this thought-provoking World War II thriller, the first in a new series from Pryor, a defense attorney and author of the Hugo Marston series. Ochlan is magnificent as Pryor’s protagonist, the cynical and somewhat cheeky Paris police detective Henri Lefort. It is July 1940, and Lefort’s crankiness is justified as Nazis have overtaken his beloved Paris, and he now reports to German officers. Still haunted by his traumatic WWI experiences, Lefort can barely maintain civility toward his German associates, especially after he is threatened with severe punishment if he cannot solve—by himself and in seven days—the murder of a German officer. During the course of his work, Lefort encounters the lively historical figures of Princess Marie (Mimi) Bonaparte, great-grandniece of Napoleon and a psychoanalyst by trade, and artist Pablo Picasso, who stayed in Paris when many other artists and celebrities of means fled. Ochlan creates remarkably distinct personalities for Bonaparte, Picasso, and all of Pryor’s other compelling secondary characters.