April 2, 2018
In bestseller Black’s fast-paced 18th Aimée Leduc investigation (after 2017’s Murder in Saint-Germain), Léo Solomon, an elderly retired accountant in poor health, insists that lawyer Éric Besson, whose late mother was a friend of Léo’s, deliver a notebook containing his handwritten confession and evidence of decades of police corruption to Paris’s chief prosecuting attorney. Éric asks his 18-year-old nephew, Marcus, to act as courier, but Marcus never reaches his destination. When the boy’s body turns up on the street two days later, the police rule the death a drug-related homicide. Éric asks his friend Aimée to investigate. Aimée, a new mother, reluctantly takes on the case only when she discovers that her late father is implicated by information in the now-missing notebook. When the killer threatens her daughter, Aimée is forced to accept help from the source she trusts least: her family. Once again Black combines a twist-filled mystery with a convincing look at the culture and politics of the City of Lights. Agent: Katherine Fausset, Curtis Brown.
April 15, 2018
Aimée Leduc (Murder in Saint-Germain, 2017, etc.) chases across Paris' low-rent district in search of a World War II-era dossier.Attorney Éric Besson can't believe there might be anything of value in the notebook Holocaust survivor Léo Solomon brings him wrapped in old twine. But the aging accountant insists the document must be presented to la Procureur de la République that very day. To pacify the old coot, Besson gives the packet to his sister's kid Marcus, who serves as his office boy, for delivery. But Besson's nephew delays his mission to spend a couple of hours at a hotel with his girlfriend, Karine. A couple of thugs break in and cut his date short, and by the time Marcus' body is discovered, Karine and the diary are nowhere to be found. Though Besson doesn't want to spend any more effort on Solomon, his diary, or even finding Marcus' killer, the case is red meat to Aimée. She thrives on redressing old wrongs. And as she pokes into the first few layers of the puzzle, she begins to suspect that Solomon's diary may include incriminating evidence against members of "the Hand," a part-political, part-criminal organization that may have been complicit in her father's death. Her partner in Leduc Detectives René Friant, warns her that the case will put both Aimée and her 10-month-old daughter in the cross hairs of some very bad people. Of course Aimée ignores René, and of course she and Chloé end up running for their lives. How many times will readers watch Aimée try desperately to shield her bébé from the consequences of her off-the books investigations? On ne sait jamais.Like her earlier entries, Black's latest is refreshingly free from the focus on French food culture that marks provincial mysteries and gratifyingly full of local Parisian color. But a little more variation in the detection menu would be welcome.
COPYRIGHT(2018) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
May 1, 2018
The unanswered questions that haunt Parisian PI Aim�e Leduc's life?the circumstances behind her father's murder and her mother's disappearance?keep resurfacing, little bits of the puzzle slotting into place while the full picture remains incomplete. So it is again in this eighteenth entry in Black's beloved series, as Aim�e is persuaded by a lawyer to hunt for a missing notebook given to him by a dying client. The notebook, Aim�e learns, contains records of how a notorious syndicate of dirty cops laundered money. Finding the notebook might be a mixed blessing for Aim�e: her father's name may appear in it as one of the dirty cops on the take, but it could also lead Aim�e to his killers. As usual in this series, Aim�e's search for answers prompts a helter-skelter, against-the-clock tour of the city's streets, this time mainly in the thirteenth arrondissement, where the trail leads her both to the district's Vietnamese neighborhood and to the remnants of the once-flourishing tapestry industry, both providing tantalizing subplots. For longtime Aim�e fans?and are there any other kind, really??this episode is particularly poignant, both for the backstory it reveals and what it suggests about the future.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)
June 1, 2018
Next in Black's always entertaining "Aim�e Leduc" series (after Murder in Saint-Germain), this well-crafted mystery is set on Paris's Left Bank, though not the chic environs of the fifth through seventh arrondissements; one of Black's strengths is showing us the grittier, everyday Paris. When 13th-arrondissement lawyer �ric Besson receives a notebook from elderly accountant L�o Solomon detailing how he laundered dirty money for dirty cops, Besson quickly sends it to the authorities via his assistant/nephew Marcus. But Marcus has been murdered, the notebook has vanished, and for help Besson turns to Aim�e, best friend of his second cousin. Though she's doing computer security work for the Biblioth�que Fran�ois-Mitter and is warned by an especially huffy partner Ren� to stay away from criminal cases, Aim�e must investigate; �ric says that her father, a victim of police corruption, is mentioned in the book. Aim�e leapfrogs from Paris's Cambodian neighborhood, where Marcus's girlfriend lives, to La Manufacture des Gobelins, where L�o worked and tapestries are still made in the medieval fashion. Her efforts put daughter Chloe in danger, upping the tension, and the surprise ending is especially satisfying. VERDICT Another great Aim�e Leduc work; for all mystery fans. [See Prepub Alert, 12/8/17.]--Barbara Hoffert, Library Journal
Copyright 2018 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
June 1, 2018
When lawyer Eric Besson receives a notebook detailing the laundering of dirty money for dirty cops, Besson sends it straight to the authorities via his assistant/nephew. But the nephew is murdered and the notebook stolen, so Besson turns to Paris's coolest PI, Aimee Leduc. Shatteringly, the cops listed in the book murdered Aimee's father. Love that Aimee!
Copyright 2018 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
April 15, 2018
Aim�e Leduc (Murder in Saint-Germain, 2017, etc.) chases across Paris' low-rent district in search of a World War II-era dossier.Attorney �ric Besson can't believe there might be anything of value in the notebook Holocaust survivor L�o Solomon brings him wrapped in old twine. But the aging accountant insists the document must be presented to la Procureur de la R�publique that very day. To pacify the old coot, Besson gives the packet to his sister's kid Marcus, who serves as his office boy, for delivery. But Besson's nephew delays his mission to spend a couple of hours at a hotel with his girlfriend, Karine. A couple of thugs break in and cut his date short, and by the time Marcus' body is discovered, Karine and the diary are nowhere to be found. Though Besson doesn't want to spend any more effort on Solomon, his diary, or even finding Marcus' killer, the case is red meat to Aim�e. She thrives on redressing old wrongs. And as she pokes into the first few layers of the puzzle, she begins to suspect that Solomon's diary may include incriminating evidence against members of "the Hand," a part-political, part-criminal organization that may have been complicit in her father's death. Her partner in Leduc Detectives Ren� Friant, warns her that the case will put both Aim�e and her 10-month-old daughter in the cross hairs of some very bad people. Of course Aim�e ignores Ren�, and of course she and Chlo� end up running for their lives. How many times will readers watch Aim�e try desperately to shield her b�b� from the consequences of her off-the books investigations? On ne sait jamais.Like her earlier entries, Black's latest is refreshingly free from the focus on French food culture that marks provincial mysteries and gratifyingly full of local Parisian color. But a little more variation in the detection menu would be welcome.
COPYRIGHT(2018) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.