Murder in Montmartre (Soho Crime) (Hardcover)

by Cara Black (Author) "AIMEE LEDUC'S HEELS SANK into the snow-crusted surface of the Paris street, quiet and deserted except for the whisper of ghosts..." (more)
Key Phrases: Zoe Tardou, Lucien Sarti, Armata Corsa (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
Intrepid Aimée Leduc strives to clear the name of a childhood friend, policewoman Laure Rousseau, who's charged with shooting her partner to death, in Black's chilling sixth novel to feature the Paris PI (after 2005's Murder in Clichy). Aimée knows the solution to proving Laure's innocence lies somewhere in the hilltop maze of the seedy Montmartre neighborhood—perhaps with a boy who says he witnessed the murder, or an aging prostitute, or any of a number of toughs or even Corsican separatists. Set in January 1995, the book vividly depicts a gritty, working-class part of Paris where rents don't always get paid and not everyone has a bed for the night. Black succeeds in making the reader feel the damp, the snow, the fear. In the process of helping Laure, Aimée not only resolves a past police scandal involving her dead father but gains in compassion and wisdom. (Mar.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist
Black continues her peregrinations around Paris' most history-drenched neighborhoods (Murder in Clichy, 2005) with this sixth in the series, this time set in Montmartre. Aimee Leduc, the intrepid computer-security analyst who can't keep her nose out of murder investigations, smells fresh blood after a childhood friend, now a policewoman, is accused of shooting her partner. Aimee doesn't buy it and takes to the streets and alleys of Montmartre in search of the real story. The trail leads to a group of Corsican separatists, aimed at achieving their political goals by any means necessary. As always, Black uses landscape for far more than window dressing, incorporating details of Montmartre history into the fabric of the plot and never missing an opportunity to connect, say, a Metro station named for a Communist Resistance fighter to the struggles of contemporary Corsicans. A common theme running throughout Black's consistently engaging series, in fact, is the frustration of various immigrant groups trying to live in and around Paris, a topic of ever more urgent concern. Bill Ott
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 368 pages
• Publisher: Soho Crime (March 1, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1569474109
• ISBN-13: 978-1569474105
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #788,108 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

• This is item 6 in The Aimee Leduc Series.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great tale and series, March 16, 2006

By	Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews (#1 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

In January 1995 in the working class neighborhood of Montmartre in Paris, the police arrest fellow officer Laure Rousseau for killing her partner, Jacques. She swears she is innocent as she explains to her childhood friend private investigator Aimee Leduc that Jacques was meeting an informer with her as his backup when he was killed; she was arrested because her gun was fired and residue was on her hands. She persuades Aimee of her innocence and to take on her case.

Aimee knows she will find the truth somewhere in the dingiest sections of Montmartre. There she immediately meets a boy who swears he witnessed the killing; she believes him, but also knows he will not be credible with the police or the courts. Other clues lead to danger from street hooligans and a Corsican separatist group that wants Aimee to leave the neighborhood. Instead the intrepid sleuth keeps digging, but soon finds the investigation takes a side tangent involving her deceased father and buried under the soot of police indiscretions, scandals, and illegalities that seem to touch her not so clean friend.

In her sixth French mystery, the Aimee Leduc tales are some of the best private investigative novels on the market over the past half a decade or so. MURDER IN MONTMARTRE is a bit darker than usual, but sill retains that powerful story line that grips the audience form the moment that the two long time friends discuss the murder. Fans will want to go with Aimee as she goes home to find clues to what went wrong in order to exonerate her buddy, but the mean streets of Montmartre are even gloomier and grittier than her nightmares. Cara Black is at her best with her latest murder in France thriller.

Harriet Klausner

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Very very good series!!, May 13, 2006

By	Mom (Northern California) - See all my reviews

The people who have said they don't like this series, well, that's OK. We all like different things. Now, as for myself, I can't stand a single book which has won the Booker Prize, except for The English Patient. I like this series of mysteries. I feel like I have gone on a vacation to Paris which may be the only way I get there. I notice that every time I read one of these, I have to go to my neighborhood cafe and read it under awnings!! This may prove hard in the winter, when it is raining or snowing!! Bravo, Cara Black!!

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Evocative story of Paris, May 29, 2006

By	booksforabuck "BooksForABuck.com" (Dallas) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

Private Investigator Aimee Leduc is at her most sensitive right after she's dumped by her boyfriend, so she takes it hard when a childhood friend, cop Laure, is accused of murdering her partner. Aimee knows Laure would never have killed the man she viewed as her mentor, but the police have their suspect and Laure is comotose and unable to defend herself. It's up to Aimee to do the job.

Aimee's investigation quickly takes her out of the everyday world of Paris into a seamy underworld of prostitutes, underemployed musicians living rough, and Corsican terrorists. It is clear to Aimee that the murder being pinned on Laure is somehow connected to the Corsicans, but the most likely suspect turns out to be the musician who restarts Aimee's bruised libido.

Always in the background is the fear of police corruption--a corruption that destroyed Aimee's father and that continues to haunt much of the Paris police department. What secrets did Laure hide? Could Aimee's father have been, after all, involved with some underhanded scheme?

Author Cara Black continues her Aimee Leduc series with an intriguing tale set in a world where ancient vendetta coexists with modern terrorism, and where the spirit of Tolouse Lautrec haunts the streets of Montmartre, the section of Paris he profiled--and a section of Paris that remains distinct from the rest of the city.

There were times when Aimee's investigation seemed a bit improbable (her invasion of the police computer system seemed particularly far-fetched), but Black's mystery is more of an impressionistic painting than a hard-edged photograph. If you're interested in Paris and in reading an author who treats that city as a dominant character, you won't want to miss MURDER IN MONTMARTRE