Good plot, timing, and action. Dialog is excellent. Hugo Marston is at his best in this novel. A fatal car accident leads to the death of 2 Hollywood stars. And to lots of investigation and chasing after potential persons of interest. Hugo meets young Merlin, a bright hotel administrator, who proves helpful in many ways.

Unfortunately more people end up dying before the murderer is found.

Good quick read. But... this book doesn't follow after the last Hugo Marston book I read 'The Blood Promise'.

THE BUTTON MAN: A HUGO MARSTON PREQUEL by Mark Pryor is #4 in this great mystery series.
This title acts as a ‘prequel’ to Hugo’s current stint as security for the American Embassy in Paris.
Hugo is a favorite character of mine and this title has a bit of a ‘classic British mystery’ touch.
**** ( )

If you have not read anything previously by Mark Pryor, this would be a great book to pick up and read first, since it is actually a prequel to his Hugo Marston series. As usual with this series, I enjoyed the book a lot, and it was fun seeing a younger Hugo and his meeting some of his friends for the first time. I look forward to the next entry in this series. ( )

The book came as a prequel after three of the Hugo Marston novels had been published. It does provide some interesting backstory for ongoing story characters and motivations, but doesn't read as if it was the original book in the series. An entertaining read with some London thrown in. Murders without too many gory details and generally GP language. Perhaps one needs to suspend a bit of critical thinking to enjoy the story. One of the major plot points is somewhat unbelievable - a trained ex-FBI agent with important passengers exiting his vehicle to see why two people from the vehicle ahead were coming toward him. Really? ( )

The Button Man by Mark Pryor
3.5★'s
Hugo Marston series book #4

From The Book:
Former FBI profiler Hugo Marston has just become head of security at the US Embassy in London. He’s asked to protect a famous movie-star couple, Dayton Harper and Ginny Ferro, who, while filming a movie in rural England, killed a local man in a hit and run. The task turns from routine to disastrous almost immediately. Before Hugo even meets them, he finds out that Ferro has disappeared, and her body has been found hanging from an oak tree in a London cemetery. Hours later a distraught Harper gives Hugo the slip, and Hugo has no idea where he’s run off to. Taking cues from a secretive young lady named Merlyn, and with a Member of Parliament along for the chase, Hugo’s search leads to a quaint English village. There, instead of finding Harper, more bodies turn up. Teaming with local detectives and then venturing dangerously out on his own, Hugo struggles to find connections between the victims. Is this the work of a serial killer—or something else entirely? Knowing he’s being tailed, the killer prepares for the final, public act of his murderous plan, and Hugo arrives just in time to play his part.

My Thoughts
This was the first book by Mark Pryor and the first in this series that I had read. The writing style flowed very well and was very easy reading. The premise of the story was also very good...a body hanging in the graveyard and plenty of suspects. The main problem I had with the story was that the lead character...a former member of the FBI and the head of the American Embassy security...would lose the man he was supposed to be protecting in the first place...and then chase him all over London and the outlying villages with the aid of people that he knew absolutely nothing about other than what they had told him. That just didn't seem believable and it bothered me throughout the entire book. I do plan on reading others in this series as I found that Hugo is a very likable character on the whole.

Anyone looking for a murder mystery to enjoy without the blood and guts will find this series fits the bill perfectly. ( )