Murder in Belleville

Tension runs high in this working-class neighborhood as a hunger strike to protest strict immigration laws escalates among the Algerian immigrants. Aimée barely escapes death in a car bombing in this tale of terrorism and greed in the shadows of Paris.

The second Aim e Leduc investigation set in Paris

When Ana s de Froissart calls Parisian private investigator Aim e begging for help, Aim e assumes the woman wants to hire her to do surveillance on her philandering politician husband again. Aim e is too busy right now to indulge her. But Ana s insists Aim e must come, that she is in trouble and scared. Aim e tracks Ana s down just in time to see a car bomb explode, injuring Ana s and killing the woman she was with.

Ana s can't explain what Aim e just witnessed. The dead woman, Ana s says, is Sylvie Coudray, her cheating husband's long-time mistress, but she has no idea who wanted her dead, and Ana s officially hires Aim e to investigate. As she digs into Sylvie Coudray's murky past, Aim e finds that the dead woman may not be who Ana s thought she was. Her Belleville neighborhood, full of North African immigrants, may be hiding clues to Sylvie's identity. As a prominent Algerian rights activist stages a hunger protest against new immigration laws, Aim e begins to wonder whether Sylvie's death was an act of terrorism, and who else may be at risk.

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.