The first Aimee LeDuc murder mystery takes readers through the intricate passageways of Paris' Marais district -- and of the city's past.
Murder in the Marais, the first in a series of au currant and action-packed mystery novels set in present-day Paris, finds computer detective, Aimee LeDuc, hired by a rabbi from Paris' old Jewish quarter -- the Marais -- to decipher an encrypted photo and deliver the results to a woman in the quarter. It seems like a straightforward enough assignment -- one that Aimee feels slightly guilty about charging so much.
All that changes when Aimee discovers the woman she was supposed to meet murdered in her bed, with a swastika carved into her forehead.
Introducing Aimee LeDuc
Aimee LeDuc, Cara Black's likeable protagonist, is a 30-something single woman, living alone in Paris. Her American mother abandoned her and her police detective father when Aimee was young, under mysterious circumstances. When the reader meets Aimee, her father has been dead for just a short while, killed in an explosion while investigating a murder. Aimee, who has inherited her family's draughty, but charming townhouse on the tony Ile St. Louis, makes ends meet by doing computer security and investigation. Murder is somewhat out of her realm.
Revisiting Old Conflicts
The old wounds of WWII run deep in France, even to this day. Friendships are made and broken for men and women "of a certain age" over "what you did during the war". Collaboration was common and even necessary for many who faced starvation for themselves and their families, but reviled none-the-less. Murder in the Marais explores those old, "just under the surface," wounds.
The Scars of the Past Revealed
As Aimee looks into the death of the older Jewish woman, the search leads to a neo-Nazi group, to the leading candidate to be France's next Premier, and to a German war veteran. Murder in the Marais is a fast-paced, thoughtful novel, with plot twists and all-too-real characters. The setting is charming and, although not a French native, Ms. Black's knowledge of Paris and the French vernacular give the novel a true Parisian feel.
About Cara Black
Cara Black is an American writer with a passion for France. She lives in San Francisco with her husband, a bookseller, and their son, and makes frequent trips to Paris. The latest in the Aimee Leduc series is Murder on the Ile Saint-Louis, her seventh novel.
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