Coq Au Vin [Hardcover]

Charlotte Carter (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 1999

It took fifteen minutes to locate Gigi Lacroix. He sat on a bench waiting for us not ten yards away.

A young girl was about to sit next to Gigi. She saw what we saw at the same moment: the glint of a big, thick blade on the ground. Gigi was leaking blood from the gaping wound in his side. And those flirty, lying eyes of his: dead, dead, dead.

Lord, could that girl scream...

Critics and readers alike have called Charlotte Carter's first mystery, Rhode Island Red, "breezy" and "sexy," and praised her writing as "extraordinary," "elegant and intelligent." Now Carter brings back her quick-witted, jazz-playing sleuth Nanette Hayes for one wild April in Paris, where hot music, romance, and the darkest of long-simmering passions are about to collide...

Nanette grew up idolizing her reckless Aunt Vivian. A freewheeling globe-trotter with a fondness for musicians, money, and good times, Viv inspired Nanette's love of jazz and free and easy living. So when Nanette's mother gets a desperate telegram from the long-missing Viv, it's only right that Nanette return to the city she's always loved to help find her aunt.

At first, everything is all good. With ruefully charming gangster Gigi Lacroix helping her search for Viv, Nanette is also enjoying some fiery Parisian nights...playing at Bricktop's and having steamy duets with Andre, a serious-minded Detroit expatriate who's mad-passionate about more than just jazz history. Then suddenly Gigi turns up dead, and Nanette is plunged into the dark past of le jazz hot. Soon, to save herself, her aunt, and Andre, she'll have to face some hard truths-about the past, herself, and her own illusions-that are promising heartbreak of the seriously fatal kind...

Sexy, smart, fired up, and all too cool, COQ AU VIN features one savvily unconventional, always straight up detective who plays things her way no matter what-and reaffirms Charlotte Carter as one of the most inventive and entertaining new mystery writers.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

African-American saxophonist Nanette Hayes lives a life that's like good jazz: it's full of soul, and she makes it up as she goes along while somehow keeping it all together. She believes she owes something to her Aunt Viv, who taught her how to enjoy life and bounce back from trouble. So when, at the start of this brilliant second outing (after Rhode Island Red), Nan is asked to hunt down the wayward Viv and hand over a substantial inheritance from Nan's father, she leaps at the opportunity. Besides, it gives her an excuse to go back to Paris, her only constant love. Once there, Nan sobs each time she passes a landmark. Nan's tale is spun craftily, taking readers on a very personal tour of the city that is inextricably linked to her soul. The search for Viv is a continuous riff, but it soon becomes secondary to the story of Andre, an expatriate and fellow street musician working on his accent, his music and Nan's affections. Before long, Nan's feelings for Andre surpass even her passion for Paris and the two play a mean duet with their instruments and their bodies. Nan's charm and daring allow her and Andre to navigate the world of expatriate jazz artists, who, they discover, are tied into swindles, robbery, betrayal and murder. Things end on a sad note, as Nan must head back to the States, having discovered that neither Viv nor her own relationship with Andre are quite what she'd hoped for. This is a top-notch mystery, engaging throughout and quite moving at the end. Foreign rights sold in France and Germany.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

In Booklist's last Mystery Showcase , we commented on how Paris as a setting for crime fiction seemed lost in a time warp. The reason for this phenomenon, we hypothesized, was Georges Simenon's Old World detective Maigret. While the rest of the continent was being invaded by a new breed of hard-boiled heroes for the post^-cold war world, the Maigret novels' deep identification with Paris acted as a protective shield around the city, keeping out the new kids. No more--not with the arrival in Paris of Nanette Hayes, street saxophonist and amateur sleuth, Grace Jones look-alike, and about as un-Maigret as it's possible to be. When a desperate telegram arrives from Nanette's idol, her long-missing aunt Viv, Nan heads off to Paris, Viv's last known address. It's a labor of love for Francophile Nan, who follows Viv's trail deep into the Paris underworld, where her high-living aunt once hung out in the glory days of le jazz hot. Playing her sax at Metro stations to make ends meet, Nanette encounters another expatriate horn player, Andre from Detroit, and the two of them improvise their own duets, musical and otherwise. Carter, who introduced Nanette in Rhode Island Red (1997), has an incredibly hot property here: Nanette Hayes may be the most charismatic crime fiction heroine to appear in the last decade; when she plays "Lover Man" at the Odeon Metro stop, it's as if Maigret never existed. Throw in Carter's jazz history^-drenched plot and her terrific feel for incorporating setting into the action, and you have a superbly entertaining novel. There's only one problem: as the book ends, Nanette is going home to New York. Get this girl back to Paris quick. Bill Ott

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 200 pages
• Publisher: Mysterious Pr (February 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0892966785
• ISBN-13: 978-0892966783
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.8 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,422,322 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good, Fast Read!, May 7, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Coq Au Vin (Hardcover)

This has the promise of being a great series. I didn't enjoy it as much as the the first book, Rhode Island Red, but Nanette Hayes is a hoot and a half. Can't wait for the next one!

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Unique main character and setting sets this one apart, December 13, 2002

By 

Joseph P. Menta, Jr. (Philadelphia, PA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Coq Au Vin (Nanette Hayes Mysteries) (Mass Market Paperback)

This fast-moving yet thoughtful mystery is refreshing on a number of levels, in particular because the crime solver isn't a middle-aged white guy who cracks wise about the same topics as every other detective in American crime fiction. Other plusses are the Paris setting and the interesting peek into the world of black musicians over the past several decades. Give this one a whirl; it's worth your time.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Missing In Action., August 8, 2001

By 

Blackworm - See all my reviews

This review is from: Coq Au Vin (Hardcover)

Here is a book that is quick on a good evening and won't totally bog the reader with a lot of filler. Nanette Hayes, on request of her mother, goes in search for her idol, Aunt Vivian, who seem to have left a couple of cryptic messages with mom. On route of searching, she is derailed by playing sax on street corners, meeting her male antagonist, who will be her lover, dirty dives, and a hotel room where her aunt resided. A duffel bag, one hundred dollars in a jacket pocket, and a picture of a old jazz musician puts her and her new conquest on the search, and somehow leads her to the missing relative, along with the drama and danger that comes along. Straight to the point and humerous, Nanette is a heroine that will charm you and a story that will keep you turning the pages.