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Library | Call Number | Status |
|---|---|---|
Searching... McMinnville Public Library | Black, C. | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... Mount Angel Public Library | BLACK, C. Aimee Leduc #1 | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... Newberg Public Library | MYSTERY BLACK | Searching... Unknown |
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Summary
Summary
Aimée Leduc, a Parisian private investigator, has always sworn she would stick to tech investigation--no criminal cases for her. Especially since her father, the late police detective, was killed in the line of duty. But when an old Jewish man approaches Aimée with a top-secret decoding job on behalf of a woman in his synagogue, Aimée unwittingly takes on more than she was expecting. When she goes to drop off her findings at her client's house in the Marais, Paris's historic Jewish quarter, she finds the old woman strangled to death, a swastika carved on her forehead. With the help of her partner, René, Aimée sets out to solve this horrendous crime, but finds herself in an increasingly dangerous web of ancient secrets and buried war crimes.
Author Notes
Cara Black was born in Chicago, Illinois on November 14, 1951. She was educated at Cañada College in California, Sophia University in Yotsuya, Tokyo in Japan, and finished her degree at San Francisco State University with a BA and an MA in education. She has worked as a preschool teacher and as director of a preschool.
Black is a bestselling American mystery writer. She is best known for her Aimée Léduc mystery novels featuring a female Paris-based private investigator. (Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (4)
Publisher's Weekly Review
The initial installment of a projected series of mysteries set in Paris, this standout first novel introduces dauntless private investigator Aime Leduc. The French-American, whose specialty is computer forensics, is confronted with a seemingly mundane task: to decipher an encrypted photograph from the '40s and deliver it to an old woman in the Marais (the historic Jewish quarter of Paris). When Aime arrives at the home of Lili Stein to present the photo, however, she finds the woman dead, a swastika carved into her forehead. Thus begins a thrilling, quick-paced chase involving neo-Nazis, corrupt government officials and fierce anti-Semitism. With the help of her partner, Ren, a computer hacking expert, Aime uncovers tantalizing clues relating to German war veteran Hartmuth Griffe, the Jewish girl he saved from Auschwitz, a French trade minister and other enigmatic figures. But the data Aime and Ren come up with only takes them so far. In order to understand the true motive behind the killing, Aime must delve into history, confronting older residents of the quarterÄwho'd prefer she leave the past aloneÄand doing some undercover work. The suspense is high as she fraternizes dangerously with the enemy, even becoming briefly involved with an Aryan supremacist. Black knows Paris well, and in her first-rate debut she deftly combines fascinating anecdotes from the city's war years with classic images of the City of Lights. (July) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Kirkus Review
Aime Leduc's specialty is corporate security, not historical research. But when the Nazi-hunter Soli Hecht invokes her late father's name to persuade her to decode a computer-encrypted photograph for Paris's Temple E`manuel, she reluctantly agrees to report to shopkeeper Lili Stein with the results. In the several hours it takes for Aime to crack the code, Lili, who survived the Gestapo's roundup of Jews during the Occupation, gets strangled and branded with a swastika'a sign that swiftly leads Aime to Les Blancs Nationaux, a rabid Aryan group that still celebrates Hitler's birthday as the day the world began. Does the swastika, carved in a style unknown since the war, indicate that Lili was targeted by Les Blancs Nationaux'or by someone convinced that she'd collaborated with the Nazis herself? Digging 50 years back in the picturesque, haunted Jewish neighborhood of the Marais, Aime uncovers the trail of a child who vanished in the cauldron of war but remains as dangerous as a buried land mine. And she can't predict the ways her simple case of multiple murder will end up entangling the economic future of Europe. An accomplished, absorbing debut whose matter-of-fact heroine will tide readers over the drumbeat of unmaskings that the out-of-the-past plot requires.
Booklist Review
AimeeLeduc, the heroine of this new series set in Paris, specializes in corporate security, but with business in the toilet, she's open to working for a Jewish Nazi hunter. A woman found dead with a swastika carved into her forehead sends Aimeesearching for the link between French neo-Nazis, an EU trade agreement, and a killer whose victims span 50 years. The jam-packed plot is occasionally hard to follow (and if readers miss the fact the story is set in 1993, the characters' ages will seem out of whack). But the characterizations are strong, the action nonstop, and the evocation of both occupied Paris and the contemporary city is awash in vivid detail, right down to a tour of the Paris sewers. Most of all, though, it's the rough-and-tumble Aimeewho gets this series off to an explosive start. It's been a strong year for hard-boiled female sleuths in Paris, with Aimeejoining Nanette Hayes, star of Charlotte Carter's Coq au Vin [BKL Ja 1 & 15 99]. --Ilene Cooper
Library Journal Review
Although set in Paris in the early 1990s, Black's new series start harks back to World War II crimes. Private investigator Aime Leduc becomes involved when she discovers the body of an elderly Jewish woman whose forehead has been inscribed with a swastika. With the arrival of a German trade delegation, meanwhile, the existence of a powerful covert group comprising former SS officers becomes clear. Aime's subsequent investigation exposes the connection between a war-time romance gone wrong and the modern-day murder. Literate prose, intricate plotting, and multifaceted and unusual characters mark this excellent first mystery. Strongly recommended for most collections. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.