Praise for Paris in the Dark:
"Paris in the Dark, with its ironic twists, is reminiscent of Somerset Maughams World War I espionage tales...Mr. Butler...brings an earlier era to such convincing life through details, attitudes and reactions at once realistic and surprising."Tom Nolan, The Wall Street Journal
"Butler returns to his outstanding historical-mystery series starring Christopher "Kit" Marlowe Cobb with WWI in full swing...There are strong echoes of Hemingway...in the melancholy and sense of tragic inevitability that hangs over the book. Beneath the frame story, this is a surprisingly introspective and quite moving novel about love and war." Booklist
"Best is Butler's feel for the black-and-white-movie atmospherics of a war zone after hours: It's a thrill to follow Kit to German hangouts like Le Rouge et le Noir, where a password will get you in, but ther's no guarantee you'll get out."Marilyn Stasio, The New York Times Book Reivew
"Paris in the Dark...starts with that literal bang and doesnt let up, surrounding its engaging protagonist with rich atmosphere and a propulsive plot...a satisfying, stylish thrill."The Tampa Bay Times
Praise for Robert Olen Butler and the Christopher Marlowe Cobb series:
[ A] thrilling historical series . . . Butler does a terrific job of depicting both the journalists facility for teasing information from his subjects and the spys incessant fear of being discovered. Theres something almost magical about the way the author re-creates this 1915 milieu.Wall Street Journal, on The Empire of Night
This high-spirited adventure by the Pulitzer Prize-winning author Robert Olen Butler is an antic concoction of genre clichés, literary sendups, personal homages, fanciful history and passages of great writing.New York Times Book Review, on The Hot Country
[ Butlers] writing is both crisp and thoughtful, his people ring true and he offers an amusing portrait of a golden age in journalism . . . A thinking persons thriller, the kind of exotic adventure that, in better days, would have been filmed by Sam Peckinpah.Washington Post, on The Hot Country
A cracking good spy thriller, with a cast of memorable characters and a terrifically suspenseful plot that will have you casting the movie as you read. And Butlers elegant writing elevates the bookhe is a master of everything from lyrical description to believable dialogue.Tampa Bay Times, on The Empire of Night
[ An] outstanding work of historical fiction.Huntington News, on The Star of Istanbul
A smart and layered yarn . . . propulsive reading . . . Butler has developed a knack for snapping off taut, Hammett-esque sentences at tense moments.Minneapolis Star Tribune, on The Empire of Night
The novel commingles character-driven historical fiction with melodrama and swashbuckling action . . . [ Butler] holds the reader transfixed, like a kid at a Saturday matinee.Booklist (starred review), on The Star of Istanbul
Robert Olen Butler is having fun in The Hot Country and readers will too. An intelligent entertainment with colorful history.Joseph Kanon, on The Hot Country
