THE BUTTON MAN, by MARK PRYOR

Briefly: I thoroughly enjoyed this birthday present from my son, who never fails to lead me to places I have never been before.  The Button Man is a good, British-style mystery-thriller, with an intriguing plot and plenty of red herrings strewn along the way.  I liked the characters--found them for the most part human and convincing; and Pryor excels when he describes scenes in London, Paris, the English countryside, without going overboard into self-congratulatory prose!

Here's my problem: the plot got sillier and sillier towards the end--a climactic scene at Madame Tussaud's that smacked of the over-the-top Hollywood horror flick.  (Was this what Pryor had in mind?  Too many writers, in my opinion, are too easily seduced by the prospect of... a movie!)  Still, despite the silliness, the book was a good read.  And "hard to put down."