Murder in Montmartre

Praise for the Aimée Leduc series:

“If you’ve always wanted to visit Paris, skip the air fare and read Cara Black . . . instead.”—Val McDermid

“Fine characters, good suspense, but, best of all, they are transcendentally, seductively, irresistibly French. If you can’t go, these will do fine. Or, better, go and bring them with you.”—Alan Furst

“She makes Paris come alive as no one else has since Georges Simenon.”—Stuart Kaminsky

“If you’ve never been to Paris, or you’d like to go back soon, let Cara Black transport you there.”—Linda Fairstein

“Charming. . . . Aimée is one of those blithe spirits who can walk you through the city’s historical streets and byways with their eyes closed.”—The New York Times Book Review

Aimée’s childhood friend, Laure, is a policewoman. Her partner, Jacques, has set up a meeting in Montmartre with an informer. When Laure reluctantly goes along as backup, Jacques is lured to an icy rooftop, where he is shot to death. Laure’s gun has been fired, gunpowder residue is found on her hands, and she is charged with her partner’s murder.

The police close ranks against the alleged cop killer. Aimée is determined to clear Laure. In doing so, she encounters separatist terrorists, Montmartre prostitutes, a surrealist painter’s stepdaughter, a crooked Corsican bar owner, and learns of “Big Ears”—the French “ear in the sky” that records telephonic and electronic communications—which the Security Services monitor. Identifying Jacques’ murderer brings her closer to solving her own father’s death in an explosion in the Place Vendôme years earlier. It still haunts her. She cannot rest until she finds out who was responsible.

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"Intrepid Aime 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). Aime 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, Aime not only resolves a past police scandal involving her dead father but gains in compassion and wisdom." Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)

In this sixth novel featuring Paris P.I. Aime Luduc, Aime must prove the innocence of her childhood friend Laure, a policewoman charged with shooting her partner to death during a meeting with an informer in Montmartre.

Cara Black lives in San Francisco with her husband, a bookseller, and her son. She is the author of Murder in the Marais, Murder in the Bastille, Murder in Belleville, Murder in the Sentier, Murder in Montmartre, and Murder in Clichy, all available from Soho Press.