Murder in the Marais

When you buy something on Amazon they will recommend books they think you might like.  A brilliant marketing ploy, as I will often give those suggestions a try.  Most recently I decided to order Murder in the Marais by Cara Black.

Murder in the Marais was published in 1999 but set in 1993 Paris.  This is the first book featuring private investigator and computer expert Aimee Leduc, and she is dropped into a doozy of a case.  The Marais is the historic Jewish Quarter of Paris, a place that saw terror and tragedy during the Nazi occupation.  When Aimee is hired by an elderly Jewish man to decode a secret photo for a woman in his synagogue, she has no idea what a can of 50 year-old worms she has just opened.  And when the woman is found dead with a swastika carved on her forehead, she realizes that this case has become much more than a simple decoding job.  Soon agencies on all sides are trying to stop her from uncovering clues, but just how high up does this mystery reach?

I liked Murder in the Marais.  I have not yet been to Paris, but Cara Black made it easy for the unfamiliar reader to navigate its celebrated streets.  Maybe that is because Black lives in San Francisco, so she doesn't assume her readers are intimates of Paris or France. This is the first in a long series of books featuring Aimee Leduc.  I think I'll try the second.

Au Revoir!