Paris Ransom

Robert Tarza, Book 3

By: Charles Rosenberg

Narrated by: Christopher Lane, Emily Sutton-Smith, Michael Page

Lawyer Robert Tarza is surprised when his young, beautiful and wealthy French girlfriend, Tess, proposes marriage. It's not that he doesn't love her, but even after five years, there's a lot about her he doesn't know.

But Robert has to put his personal life on hold when his friend Oscar Quesana shows up outside Tess's Parisian apartment clutching a mysterious package, with a thief hot on his heels. Oscar has somehow acquired a priceless old book.

When Robert and his former protégée, Jenna James, see Oscar shoved into a car and abducted, they find themselves entangled in unexpected intrigue. Robert, Tess and Jenna must quickly determine who is friend and who is foe in order to rescue Oscar before it's too late. Along the way, Robert might just make some astonishing discoveries about those he holds dear.

©2015 Charles Rosenberg (P)2015 Brilliance Audio, all rights reserved.

Back to Form for Tarza and Company, Great Novel

Paris Ransom once again features the brilliant duo of the arsitocratic and brilliant attorney Robert Tarza and his former protege, the impulsive and witty Jenna James. And like Death On A High Floor, the two make an entertaining and formidable team. But there are two more remarkable characters in this tale that, when put together with Tarza and James, create a synergy that overwhelmed the mystery. (Its a great mystery!) It left me longing to know them better.

Tarza has retired in Paris and is engaged to a wealthy socialite. As the story unfolds he learns his fiancee is much, much more than a pretty face. She may even be a spy.

The fourth character is an aging Paris judge. Through him Rosenberg introduces us in a fascinating way to the French legal system. This alone makes the book worth a credit, but the judge is another charismatic character whom I hope to hear more from in later works.

The three narrators are perfect for this book.

Though this is the third in the series, it is not neccessary to read the books in order. In my opinion, you only need to read Death on a High Floor and Paris Ransom. Just be sure you do!

most annoying performance

having to endure fake accents in a conversation is bad enough but having to listen to whole chapters being read in a so called pompous French accent was almost too much.

It Met My expectations

What made the experience of listening to Paris Ransom the most enjoyable?

I listened to audio tapes to pass the time away driving or doing mundane chores. Having said that I want it to keep my attention. I don't like to hear all the gorey details of what happened but want it to be more about "who did it" and "who didn't". I have listened to all 3 audios by Charles Rosenberg and they all met my criteria.

What did you like best about this story?

I like the 3 main characters and hope any additional books will be written in the same style.

Anxiously waiting for next novel

excellent story and hope the adventure continues soon with the same characters and story tellers

Not as good as the first, better than the second.

Okay let's do this in two sections. The good and the bad.

The Good
Charles Rosenberg is a very good writer. The dialog is good, the characters over the three books they've been together behave consistently, and the detail of the legal parts of the stories are always there. I like that.

The story here is good, you don't really get a feel for the whole arc until the very end.

There's enough thrills and spills to make it entertaining, but it's not over the top and hamhanded.

The explanation of the money laundering scheme was really interesting, as was the reveal of the big crime at the end. I liked that.

The Bad
This one felt a little "caperish." Like a heist movie in Paris without the big heist.

Aside from the three main characters (Oscar, Robert, and Jenna) the rest of the characters are as much caricatures as they are characters.

It's a bit too cloak and dagger for my tastes, at least for a legal thriller.

Robert can be insufferable ;)

Conclusion
The first book was really good, the second was meh, and this one was really good although a bit divergent from the first two. I do hope for more in the series and I also hope that Rosenberg, whose work I'm growing to enjoy, really does recapture the "secret sauce" of the first one at some point.

third in a series.

search the author. 2 books before this. I enjoyed the characters. I got this not realizing it was the same ones until it mentioned some previous events that sounded familiar

Good mystery about a book

Paris Ransom is a good enough novel but compared to Charles Rosenberg's Death on a High Floor and Write to Die, it is disappointing. On the positive side narration is outstanding.

Such a disappointment after the first one!

The first book in this series (Death on a High Floor), was excellent. A delightful story full of great characters. I skipped the second one because the reviews were so negative (from people who had read and loved the first). This one had some good reviews on Amazon, so I was very much looking forward to it. It was disappointing. Felt more like a Nancy Drew caper (with ridiculous coincidences all the way through and almost slapstick moments of bumbling moves by our main characters). The "mystery" itself gets lost amongst all the superfluous information and silly dialogue (the lovable, pretentious curmudgeon from the first novel has lost his charm and seems more like a caricature here). The three narrators do their best but sometimes their fake French and Russian accents add to the impression that these are cartoons, not characters. I couldn't give it two stars because it was better than passable (at moments, very entertaining)...but three stars is almost too much. I will wait for great audible reviews before downloading another one on the series (if there is one). Hope Mr.Rosenberg gets his 'groove' back from Death on a High Floor by then.

WHY THREE NARRATORS???

This started so well and I was addicted! Then all of a sudden the narrator switches from CL to ESS. Annoying, but okay; she isn’t bad. Then ANOTHER switch and this time it is unbearable! MP is ridiculously over the top! I could not stand it and had to turn it off. Requesting money back on this one!

Turned out pretty good.

I was a bit worried for a while that I wasn’t going to be able to finish it, but it turned around. The mystery kept going until the very end. A lot of characters were suspects. The “who did it” factor was quite good.