Rendezvous Eighteenth [Hardcover]

Jake Lamar (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 1, 2003

Rendezvous Eighteenth marks the emergence of an exciting voice in crime fiction. Ricky Jenks gave up life in the U.S. years ago and is content, if not happy, with his life as a piano player in a small café in the Montmartre neighborhood of Paris. He has many friends among the other African-Americans living in Paris and is happily, if casually, involved with a French Muslim woman.

But then everything changes. His American life comes crashing down on him when his estranged cousin wants help finding his runaway wife, whom he thinks might have come to Paris, even though he's vague about why. That same night Ricky finds a prostitute dead in his apartment building in Paris's Eighteenth Arrondissment, one of the most multicultural sections of Paris. That these two events could be connected is something he never imagines.

This intricate, absorbing thriller is ultimately much more than a suspense novel. Lamar's detailed and vibrant portrait of life in Paris is as much the story of a black man's alienation and redemption-indeed, the story of an entire community searching for a home-as it is a taut thriller about revenge, obsession, and murder

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

After the uneven If 6 Were 9 (2001), a blend of murder mystery and academic satire, Lamar makes a new start in the crime field with this well-constructed novel, set in Paris's 18th arrondisement between Montmartre and Pigalle with its whores, pimps and transvestites. Ricky Jenks, an African-American jazz pianist who plays in a cafe, is besotted with Fatimah Boukhari, a French Muslim who will love and marry only another Muslim. Ricky's troubles begin when his flashy and hated cousin, Cassius "Cash" Washington, arrives in Paris. A successful orthopedic surgeon who ran off with Ricky's bride the night before the wedding, Cash needs help in finding his current wife, Serena. Ricky reluctantly agrees to search for Serena, but he gets some confusing and inconsistent answers when he starts asking Serena's friends about her. When he finds the body of a prostitute in his apartment building's vestibule, Ricky becomes a suspect in her murder. The crime-solving, however, is incidental to the book's real strength, its characters. The author casts a tough, critical eye on his cast of mostly black middle-class expatriate Americans, whose interactions he so deftly depicts. Mystery fans may feel shortchanged, but mainstream readers fond of Paris should feel fully satisfied.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Ricky Jenks left New York for Paris after his fiancee left him at the altar to run off with his cousin, Cash Washington, a successful surgeon. Nine years later, Ricky plays piano at a Montmartre creperie, hangs out with other African American expats, and has fallen in love with a beautiful French Muslim woman--which is why he is not at all pleased to hear his cousin's voice on his answering machine, announcing that he is in Paris and needs Ricky's help to find his runaway wife. Thus begins a tangled plot involving the murder of a prostitute in Ricky's apartment building and the underworld doings of cousin Cash. The thriller elements never quite coalesce, but everything else in this atmospheric novel works superbly. Lamar relishes Montmartre geography and incorporates it seamlessly into the story. Best of all, Ricky is a thoroughly engaging hero, self-deprecating, something of a bumbler, yet sensitive and romantic in utterly believable ways. This one's a keeper; pair it with Charlotte Carter's Coq au Vin (1999), also starring a jazz-playing African American in Paris. Bill Ott
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Minotaur Books; First Edition edition (November 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312289200
• ISBN-13: 978-0312289201
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.4 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,557,387 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Paris in the springtime, January 17, 2004

By 

The RAWSISTAZ Reviewers (RAWSISTAZ.com and BlackBookReviews.net) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Rendezvous Eighteenth (Hardcover)

Set in romantic Paris in the drippy, rainy springtime, RENDEZVOUS EIGHTEENTH is a delicious mystery about an expatriate African American. Rickey Jenks is escaping his family in New Jersey who he believes think he's fat and dumb. After his bride-to-be leaves him at the altar, Rickey decides he has had enough and moves to Paris where no one knows him. One night when he returns home from work, he discovers a transsexual prostitute has had her throat slit in the entrance to his building. After slipping in the blood and then fainting, he wakes up to find that the Paris police think he did it. To further complicate his life, a cousin he hates, Cash Washington, suddenly appears in Paris and wants to meet with Rickey. At the same time his African girlfriend begins having second thoughts about their relationship and his friend and French tutor, Valista the Serb, wants him to hide a box of hand grenades for her. Amid the confusion, Rickey knows he must solve the mystery or do time in a French jail.

RENDEZVOUS EIGHTEENTH is a wonderful travel guide to Paris. It is also a social commentary on the past and present expatriate African American community as well as a riveting mystery that holds the reader's attention to the last word on the last page.

Reviewed by alice Holman
of The RAWSISTAZ Reviewers

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great Crime Fiction!, February 20, 2004

By 

Phyllis Rhodes (Orlando, FL USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Rendezvous Eighteenth (Hardcover)

Jake Lamar's Rendezvous Eighteenth is set in modern day Paris's Eighteenth Arrondissement, a beautiful and decadent section of town that underachieving African American Ricky Jenks has chosen to call home for the past ten years. Ricky is leading a carefree bohemian lifestyle as a musician in a small café until his peaceful existence is interrupted by a desperate phone call from his least favorite cousin, Cassius, a renowned surgeon to the NFL and NBA athletes. Cassius is looking for his wife (Serena) who has fled to Paris after a heated domestic dispute and offers Ricky a thousand dollars to look in his expatriate circle of friends for clues to her whereabouts. Good-natured Ricky is immediately drawn into a quagmire that results in him being a suspect in the murder of a transvestite prostitute found in the lobby of his building with keys to his apartment. Complicating matters is the pregnancy of his French Muslim lover, Cassius's strange business dealings and partners, and the enigma behind Serena's cryptic past and reemergence in Paris.

The novel contains excellent characterizations - very full-bodied, rich descriptions that truly bring the characters to life; they have depth, color, and painfully human vulnerabilities. The cultural, political, and societal issues of Paris's rich multi-ethnic, multi-racial environment were relayed in clever dialogue and within the histories of each character, for example: a Serbian freedom fighter/mime, an African American woman restaurant owner with a "divafied" attitude, WWII veterans, a devout Muslim student struggling with worldly desires, etc. The novel was paced and moved very well - every chapter ended with a mini "cliffhanger" making it impossible to stop turning pages. This is a great addition to the crime fiction genre - it had romance, intrigue, and wonderful touches of wit and humor. This was my first exposure to Mr. Lamar's work - I definitely plan to add his other novels to my reading list.

Reviewed by Phyllis
APOOO BookClub, Nubian Circle Book Club

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Strange Goings-On In Paris, January 1, 2004

By 

Michael Adubato (Belgium) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Rendezvous Eighteenth (Hardcover)

Although I am not a fan of murder mysteries, I do love to watch characters come to life between the covers of an entertaining book. This is exactly what happens in Jake Lamar's latest book, and his first one set in Paris.

Ricky Jenks is a guy who said goodbye to the USA and headed to Paris, as many Americans had before him . Ricky is someone who I'm sure I had met before. He has a soft, forgiven heart, a sharp mind and a love for his simple life in his adopted homeland.

The plot is pretty amazing and, although I do not usually read this type of book, it was really entertaining. It's one of those rare books where something is always happening when at the same time nothing is. I find it fascinating that so much can happen in so little time. It is a rare book where there are no dull parts to it.

The words and style that Jake uses allows him to paint vivid pictures as he visits cafes, walks down Pigalle and shops at the local market, really brought the book to life for me. He does this as he brings in local culture and expatriate culture into his little corner of Paris.

Being a great fan of football (soccer!), I loved the way he incorportated the get-together of Ricky and his lovely Muslim lady with the back-drop of the World Cup 1998 held in France.

The book is a must read not only for fans of Paris but for those who appreciate a well contructed novel.