Mason, an antagonist driven by an intense desire for revenge against Hannah.
Paris Noir is filled with intriguing new characters. One character I especially enjoyed writing was Mason. Mason is an officer from Las Vegas, toughened by the city’s grit and committed to justice. When he learns that a string of murders has been occurring back home, Mason quickly fixes his attention on Hannah. But who is this driven man, and what fuels the intensity of his desire?
That answer lies solely with one man: Rafael Walker-Smith. From the very beginning of the series, I knew I wanted Rafael to carry a past that would eventually come back to haunt him. During his years on the force, Rafael unearthed disturbing secrets tied to a fellow officer, Donovan, and the more he learned the clearer it became that Donovan was compromised. As Rafael dug deeper, he discovered that Mason was the shadowy figure covering up Donovan’s dirty work, a man who believed he had kept his personal affairs tightly sealed. Mason is stunned to learn that Rafael has a goddaughter—Hannah Walker—whom Rafael had not been in contact with for years, a fact that fractures the fragile balance between them and sets the stage for the tensions to come.
When he leaves the force to begin a new life as a college professor, Mason warns Rafael that one day he will make good on a promise: he intends to hurt the one person Rafael loves most—his goddaughter. Mason says that if Rafael ever missteps and he happens to cross paths with Hannah, he will not hesitate to see her jailed, purely to watch Rafael suffer. After finding multiple bodies in Las Vegas that the hooded figure commits, Mason doesn’t hesitate to arrest Hannah. After her arrest, she calls Rafael and tells her the situation she is going through.
As she sits in the interrogation room, Mason dives deeply into Hannah’s past and promises that he will see to it she goes to jail permanently — and that he will make sure the sentence holds. Hannah begs him to leave her and Rafael alone, but Mason refuses; he vows he will not rest until Rafael pays for what he’s done. Hannah reads Mason like an open book and speaks the truth without hesitation: he hates Rafael because he could not accept that Rafael was a good cop, and he resented that Rafael would not join him in framing innocent people.
Hannah also uncovers that Mason is in cahoots with Donovan and learns they will stop at nothing to ensure that the wedding in Paris doesn’t take place. Realizing the danger and how deeply the conspiracy runs, Hannah calls upon Smith and asks him to arrest her so she can infiltrate their circle and learn more about Donovan, Mason, and Bree. Mason, in particular, reminds me of a man i met many years ago — the kind of person who, from the moment i first saw him, gave me the unmistakable sense that he was likely not to be trusted.
