Customer Reviews

Murder in Clichy (Aimee Leduc Investigations, No. 5)

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

 

 

generally a big fan of Cara Black but this latest is a big mound of material searching for a decent editor. Even for a big fan its a slog. I think that there is a fine book buried in the text but whomever is claiming to be the editor of this book should be fired - it's a mess. Second Draft (maybe) but ready for publication it is not!

One of the problems with reading a novel that is part of a series is not reading until the fifth. Black's descriptions of Paris and the ambience of the neighborhoods reads like a well written travelogue on Lonely Planet. But I got tired of the number of times people drummed their nails or their finger or rattled their cups on a "zinc counter". Or how many time's Aimee had to changed torn fishnet stockings. Sometimes I got the feeling that the story was secondary to Black's knowledge about different areas of Paris.

As to the story...it gets in it's own way from time to time, and sometime just meanders along, "like the Seine on an amber autumn morning, lit by sun filtering through the clouds and fallen chestnut tree leaves, as lovers wandered hand in hand among the book stalls". Sorry got carried away...

Hard to tell whether she was trying to flesh out the story or had condensed it! Bottom line, the mystery was good and kept you guessing, but much of the time that may have been because we were "darkly looking through a nineteenth century, dappled window, which are so reminicent of the 14th arrondisement".

Excellent new entry by Cara Black. This is the third Aimee Leduc book I've read and I find myself gladly anticipating the ride. (Glad I still have two more to read). I'm enjoying Black's character, Aimee, as much as Harry Bosch, Elvis Cole, Nick Stefanos, Tony Valentine and Tess Monaghan. I keep coming back.

Black's Paris is as much a character as L.A., D.C., Vegas, and Baltimore are in the aforementioned author's books. I love learning and reading about the arrondissements in Paris.

Very well done.

In 1994 Paris, Aimee Leduc has sight for the most part and the blurriness is going away, but she still struggles with her injuries especially to the optic nerve from last month's assault. Her computer security firm partner Rene encourages her to continue to seek a healthier lifestyle. Vietnamese Sister Linh asks Aimee to deliver an envelope to Thadee Baret because the nun insists she cannot do it as she is watched, even in Paris, as she is the daughter of a blackballed judge in her native country and the sister of a jailed dissident.. Reluctantly, Aimee agrees.

The drop off seems to go smooth as Aimee provides the envelope to Thadee who hands over to her a jade piece to give to Linh. Not long afterward someone kills Thadee. Aimee wonders what is going on as she was just a delivery intermediary, but government agents tell her to back off from making inquiries and someone abducts her partner, making the scenario even more baffling.

The fifth Aimee Leduc investigative tale is a fantastic story in which the readers remain in the dark along with the heroine wondering what is going on yet unable to stop reading to learn the truth. Aimee is a fabulous protagonist who learns a life lesson about Good Samaritans as she investigates the murder, the nun, and the abduction while pressure for her to back off increases. Cara Black provides her usual terrific Parisian joy ride that has helped make the Leduc tales consistently some of the best professional sleuth novels in recent years.

Harriet Klausner

The risk one always runs in picking up a series with the latest book is not having the backstory and knowing the identity of the characters. I very much felt that which this series. I appreciated the descriptions of the city, and the intricacy of the plot and having it unfold to me as it did the characters. But I also found it hard to relate to the characters and felt the story was very slow. It was easy for me to put the book down and hard to pick it back up. The writing is very good but, as I usually do, I would recommend starting the series at the beginning.

This is the best in the Aimee Leduc series I've read yet! Not only does Cara Black show you Paris, she shows that it's not all the Louvre and the Champs-Elysees. She takes you where the tourists seldom go, to the arrondissements that the guidebooks never even mention. She shows you Paris from all sides, the Jewish, Muslim, North African, and Asian sides. She shows what it's like for former French colonials who returned, and former colonial subjects that relocated to France. In this book, she explores the Vietnamese community in Paris and seems to have done a lot of research. Most of us know something about the U.S. involvement in Vietnam, but not much is said about what went on before that. This book at least opens the door to the history of that country and France's involvement as a colonial power. It makes you want to read further. She also explores other items of interest, such as the French legal system, the art world, the symbolic properties of jade in East Asian cultures, and the area of Clichy itself, which is not even listed in the index of the DK Eyewitness Guide. If you really want to get to know Paris, this is a good place to start. The one thing I dont understand is that she always sets her books in the early 1990s rather than the present. This means areas may have changed radically by now. The plot is nonstop action, and while sometimes not quite realistic, it's fun to read. I love the scene where Aimee escapes down a garbage chute. If Aimee had pet rats like me, she wouldnt find them quite so horrifying. They'd prefer a nice clean home, too. The character I'm liking more and more is Aimee's partner Rene. I'm glad the author gave him an expanded role in this story, and I hope she continues to do so. He's really amazing; they should do more mystery solving as a team. Don't pay too much attention to negative comments, this series is a winner and I can't wait for the next one.

Like Paris, the newest novel in the Aimee Leduc series is complicated, elegant, and lush with pleasures. I've ardently followed this series from the start. As always, Paris herself is a leading character (and the history of France is too); unlike other popular writers Black draws a Paris very much like the real one, of wealthy aristos and struggling immigrants, refinement and poverty, where past and present mingle with comfortable familiarity. We also are given more and richer insights into Aimee and, in particular, her partner Ren. I am loving the way Aimee, and Black, are developing. This is the best Leduc Detective yet.

"Then behold, seven heads, withered, thin, and blighted by the east wind, sprang up after them." -- Genesis 41:23 (NKJV)

Many people don't realize that Vietnam was once a French colony and that French forces experienced military failures there before the Americans did in the Vietnam War. Cara Black picks up on that fragile thread to create a most unlikely plot for Aimee Leduc and Rene Friant. Unlike earlier books in this series, Ms. Black seems to think she's writing an international intrigue thriller rather than another Aimee Leduc investigation.

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 don't think it's essential to read this book to enjoy the rest of the series. Unless you like noir in Paris, this book may not have much appeal for you.

I love the intrigue of mystery. Cara Black has set an incredible goal for herself. I can close my eyes and see the places she describes. Not crazy about the "injury in every book" tactic though I appreciated the carryover on the visually impaired.

I just love this series. Paris is our favorite city in the world and even after 10 or 12 trips we don't feel we know it well enough. This series is great and Aimee is a great charater. Each series provides neat insight into a different neighborhood.