Cara Black

Murder in the Marais

Janice Hopper

I think I figured out what this books was SUPPOSED to be at the end when (view spoiler)[the protagonist was saved from falling all the way through a broken glass rooftop by SOMEONE REACHING DOWN TO GRAB HER FROM A HELICOPTER which she apparently hadn't noticed. (hide spoiler)]

I think it's supposed to be one of those crazy stories of a super-competent agent/investigator who can do all manner of wild and crazy things (e.g., run across rooftops in high heels, stop in the middle of a chase to GET HER HAIR DONE, etc).

But it didn't work for me. It started off too serious to begin with. Plus there are Nazis, neo-Nazis and (view spoiler)[an 18 YEAR OLD SS OFFICER who seduces a 14 YEAR OLD JEWISH GIRL (hide spoiler)] and no, I'm not ok with any of that. Plus Aimée had no problem sleeping with a hot Neo-Nazi, because, well, hotness, I guess, and I am not ok with that either.

Perhaps if I'd understood this insight about the book from the beginning, I'd have liked it a little better. But as it is, TO ME it was a huge mess. Also, her depiction of computer use in 1993? Doesn't exactly jibe with my memory of the capabilities of systems back then. 

Also, Aimée has a dog named Miles Davis. What kind of dog? WHO KNOWS???? SHE DIDN'T SAY??? Who TF puts a dog in a book without saying something about the dog, besides what he eats and who he stays with when his owner is gallivanting around Paris doing stupid things that make no sense? /doglovergripe

I didn't enjoy it at all, and wish I'd just been able to get it from the library, or some other way where I didn't have to pay money for this. Sorry, Cara Black and fans, this is not for me.

Meet Aimée Leduc, the smart, stylish Parisian private investigator, in her bestselling first investigation Aimée Leduc has always sworn she would stick to tech investigation--no criminal cases for her. Especially since her father, the late police detective, was killed in the line of duty. But when an elderly Jewish man approaches Aimée with a top-secret decoding job on behalf of a woman in his synagogue, Aimée unwittingly takes on more than she is expecting. She drops off her findings at her client's house in the Marais, Paris's historic Jewish quarter, and finds the woman strangled, a swastika carved on her forehead. With the help of her partner, René, Aimée sets out to solve this horrendous murder, but finds herself in an increasingly dangerous web of ancient secrets and buried war crimes.

Niki Whittaker 

Francine Corry

Aubrey Hicks

Kristina Sanders

Detective Aimee Leduc fears that a group reminiscent of the 1940s Red Terror gang is on the loose - and her long-lost mother may just be one of them... The LA Times writes, 'With its sights, sounds and colourful past, it's a particularly eventful and involving Paris visit'. Marcia Muller says 'I immensely enjoyed this exotic journey through Paris' Sentier district. An intricately plotted thriller'.

Murder in the Marais

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