Robert Langdon is at it again—fleeing from his pursuers in the dark of night, in the company of a stunning and intelligent female
accomplice, in a battle against time to make sure that truth wins and evil is vanquished. That is the basic premise of every Robert
Langdon book. It’s a bit tiresome, but
it’s also irresistible. The science,
art, and architecture tie-ins are always fascinating to me. Brown goes modern in this novel—the action
opens at the Bilbao Guggenheim and takes place largely in Gaudi’s Barcelona. I found the chase more interesting than the
revelation at the end, but I will probably pick up the next Dan Brown novel featuring Robert Langdon again, if there is one.
If you like your mysteries set in European locales, here’s a Parisian detective series that is sure to please. AimĂ©e 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), AimĂ©e 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, dĂ©solĂ©, c’est tout! Oh, and AimĂ©e’s frequent stop...

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