Customer Reviews

Murder in the Bastille (Aimee Leduc Investigations, No. 4)

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is my first Aimee Leduc novel, and I am happy to say that it came as a pleasant surprise. On my previous visit to Paris (in 1999), I was startled to see tough paratroopers armed with automatic rifles at the Chatelet-Les Halles metro station patrolling the platforms and corridors. Paris is no longer the city of Maurice Chevalier, or even Georges Simenon: What we have here is a rougher and edgier city with a compact tourist core surrounded by miles of slumlike banlieus along the edges.

Cara Black's flics barely have the time to deal with murder, when other events like terror-driven explosions and a horrible TGV accident in the station. Rumanian thugs in cheap exercise suits abound, selling their muscle to developers and with an eye on the main chance, whatever it may be. The Bastille area, site of a notorious castle/prison torn down in 1789, is now dominated by the huge Opera Bastille. The local neighborhood, however, is being forcibly torn down and redeveloped.

In walks private investigator Aimee Leduc. In the first few pages of MURDER IN THE BASTILLE, she is brutally attacked in an alley and blinded as a result of a damaged artery. For most of the novel, she can see nothing around her. The onus for the investigation falls on her dwarfish partner Rene, with occasional help en passant from overburdened police officers who knew her father on the force.

I look forward to reading the other novels in the series.

Murder in the Bastille is the adventure that draws the reader to Aimee Leduc's side from the beginning. The story begins with Aimee in a restaurant. At a nearby table, she spots a woman who is wearing an identical Chinese silk top. When the woman leaves, Aimee notices that she has left behind her cell phone and goes after her to return it. Down a side street in pursuit of the woman, Aimee is violently attacked. When she comes to, she is blind. From here, readers, hone all your senses, and go with Aimee on this new journey to find the answers to this multi-faceted mystery. I particularly enjoyed "Bastille" because we get to see different dimensions of Aimee as a person, given her new vulnerabilities. Her condition also gives us a chance to view Rene in a broader light as his role becomes instrumental in putting all the pieces together. If you want someone to show you around Paris, with an attitude of free-spirit and freshness, jump into Aimee's pack and hang on tight. Cara Black, has proven to be, once again, a worthy and able tourguide through the Paris streets.

Black just keeps getting better and better, and "Murder in the Bastille" is her best Aimee Leduc mystery yet. Aimee's blindness has given her a depth that only comes throught trial and experience and Black has adroitly handled her heroine's inner growth. The independence that Aimee has shown in the previous books here takes on an edgy sadness that fills in her character and really brings her to life. Her partner, Rene, too, comes into his own in this 4th book of the series.

The plot of "Bastille" is smooth and the considerable action connects readily. As always, Paris itself is a character, and the dark dreams and gritty contemporary reality of the city are as rich and delicious as an espress on a rainy day. Escape to Paris as easily as opening the cover.

Murder in the Bastille is my first Aimee Leduc mystery, but it won't be my last. Not only do the backstreet Paris scenes ring true, so do the complex relationships. Readers who bring a little something to the book themselves will enjoy it more than dullards who look for simplistic answers with every loose thread neatly snipped. Cara Black's in media res approach makes me want to go backwards and forwards in this intelligent series. Highly recommended.

Aimee is mistaken for another woman and attacked in the Passage de la Boule Blanche, near the Opera Bastille and the Hopital Quinze Vingts. Her optic nerve is injured, causing blindness; the other woman, Josiane, is murdered. Her struggle to deal with the loss of control that this brings and her acceptance of help in order to learn how to continue doing her job despite this handicap reveals her vulnerability and brings her closer to us. We also get to know Rene better as he is forced to come out of the office, gathering information and functioning on the street to help Aimee find the murderer of Josiane. A new romantic subplot (and a discovery of an existing character's romantic feelings) makes us curious about Aimee's future love life.

The plot line is clearer & more absorbing, there are fewer characters, and as a result, this book is more relaxing to read and we know the characters better. There are some memorable bit players - Mathieu, the restorer of antique furniture; Mimi, the retired madam; and Bibi, the Downs syndrome boy whose excellent observation skills help solve the case and also move one of the flics to deal with his family issues. The perpetrator is not easily identified & Aimee makes a few mistakes here too before blundering into the place that reveals his identity. Black's picture of "les vieux" who have lived in the Bastille all their lives being thrown out of their dwellings by thugs hired by developers rings true, and her thumbnail portraits of these people are not easily forgotten.

My one reason for not giving this book five stars has to do with the lack of integration between the different plot threads - the "development" angle (connected with the murder from the beginning) and a terrorist/smuggling plot thread which emerges later. Black does bring them together at the end, but the characters that ring the truest are those who figure in the other plot thread - even that of the person who turns out to be the attacker. The terrorist thread is not as well developed & suffers from the same episodic quality familiar from Black's earlier books.

Black succeeds in making her Bastille book more of a story and less of a travelogue/lecture on the history of every famous place that turns up. Yes, a few well-known spots are mentioned and you can google them and plan to go there on your next trip. I began to quite like the Bastille area and want to explore it more! But it is nicer to see Black coming into her own as a writer and moving beyond her obsession with the minutiae of the history of Paris.

With each Aimee Leduc novel, Cara Black gets better--ever more deft and graceful at storytelling and characterization, while still giving us the intensity of Paris. At the very start of this book, Aimee is attacked and blinded. The police suggest she was the victim of a serial killer. But was she? Aimee struggles to navigate in the world of the blind while considering several unfolding crimes. Among the wonderful things about this book is the emergence of her partner Rene from prop sidekick status--it is Rene who acts to uncover crucial evidence, and Black's portrait of him is powerful and poignant. The action takes place in a Paris that is not a tourist fantasy but a tough metropolis. As ever, no other writer today gives us Paris like this. Black remains that rarity--a marvelous storyteller who believes readers have a brain.

"But the LORD said to Samuel, 'Do not look at his appearance or at his physical stature, because I have refused him. For the LORD does not see as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.'" -- 1 Samuel 16:7 (NKJV)

Can you think of another recent mystery series based in Paris that provides such rich detail about a neighborhood, its history, its current inhabitants, the lives of those on society's margins, and intriguing looks at a quartier's underground quirks? Anyone who has read more than two books in the series is bound to have found that combination to be intriguing.

I suspect that some people discover Cara Black in the mistaken belief that she provides for Paris what Donna Leon does for Venice. Mais, non! Ms. Leon takes you into the places that tourists would like to go while Ms. Black takes you to places that many tourists probably pray they will never see.

There's also an intriguing choice of detectives by Cara Black that breaks the mold. Her heroine, Aimee Leduc, doesn't want to be an investigator. She just wants to wear vintage designer clothes bought for little, to have exciting times with handsome "bad" boys, and to earn enough money as a computer security consultant at Leduc Detective to keep her home and business. Her pain is not understanding what happened to her mother and father, an intriguing thread that ties the series together. Rene Friant, her partner, is a genius at hacking into computer systems and is an expert in martial arts despite being a dwarf who walks in pain.

Now, if you like offbeat, this series has it.

I felt that with this book, the novels took a definite turn for the better.

As the dust jacket copy reveals, the book opens with an apparent coincidence, Aimee and another woman in the same restaurant wearing identical outfits. When Aimee searches for her look-alike, she's attacked and loses her sight. The other woman is found murdered. The police connect the two events to a series of murders . . . but Aimee isn't so sure that's the right answer. Who did it?

You'll find that the police are more obtuse than usual, which can make the story a little annoying.

The ultimate motive is well hidden and adds a chilling element to a dark story.

There's also a romantic element that will appeal to those who like a bit of sexual attraction in their murder mysteries.

Have more fun in the Bastille than the prisoners did during the Ancien Regime there!

I loved this book. Rene plays a much larger role which allows us to learn more about him and to see Aimee through his eyes. I feel like I got to know them both better.

Aimee losing her sight is such an interesting and unique twist. She is no longer the fearless detective. She is vulnerable and it only makes her personality more interesting and complex.

I can't wait to continue with this series. It's a fun escape and always makes me want to wear bright red Chanel lipstick.

Being stuck for a week with only the first seven Leduc Investigations books to read (three I had to give up on), I now know literary hell. The main character is a leftist private detective, who dislikes the incompetent and corrupt police (but is the daughter of a senior Prefecture of Police officer), who has a weakness for bad boys, Couture fashion and cigarettes, and is possibly the most annoying character I have read. The author has no clue about criminal investigations, French law enforcement, weapons, or forensics, but besides that...

Also the author besides her socialist leaning drivel and improbable plot lines, has the charming ability of making Paris the City of Light, seem as drab, grimy and nearly appealing as Detroit.

do I keep trying to read Cara Black's novels? I guess because they sound as if they'll be interesting, a la Donna Leon's Italian mysteries.

Instead, they are poorly written, confusing, and thoroughly "ungood"!