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Murder in Passy, An Aimée Leduc Investigation / Cara Black

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If you like your mysteries set in European locales, here’s a Parisian detective series that is sure to please. Aimée Leduc is a private eye, born of a French career detective and an absentee American mother (brief hints of angst over this in this installment). She’s appeared in about ten adventures, always set in iconic Parisian neighborhoods : Murder in the Marais, Murder in the Bastille, Murder in Montmartre, and Murder in the Latin Quarter, to name a few. In Murder in Passy (Paris’s tony XVIe arrondissement), Aimée finds herself mixed up in a murderous intrigue involving the French arm of the Basque nationalist movement. The final chase involves the kidnapping of a Spanish princess, a secret torture chamber used by the Gestapo in WWII, and a rooftop escape. The author sprinkles enough French words into the dialogue to either annoy you or make you feel your French 101 was not for nothing— Zut alors! très chic, c’est parfait, désolé, c’est tout! Oh, and Aimée’s frequent stops in cafes and bistros will really make you pine for the streets of Paris. One is never-- jamais, jamais-- too busy chasing down a criminal to stop to enjoy un café expresso or a kir royale. I felt myself wanting to read more of the series to flesh out some of Aimée’s history. Light, entertaining and escapist.

Comments

  1. wclaspyOctober 12, 2011 at 6:58 AM

    I know Jane loves these- she recommended I read "Murder in the Marais" when we stayed there.

    ReplyDelete
  2. KenOctober 12, 2011 at 7:16 AM

    It was her rec!

    ReplyDelete

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