Murder in the Latin Quarter

December 22, 2008
Two weeks after Princess Diana's death in Paris in 1997, an illegal Haitian immigrant named Mireille walks into Aimée Leduc's office, claiming that Aimée's late father was also her father. Before Aimée can learn more, Mireille disappears, leaving only a cryptic note with an address in the Latin Quarter, the setting for Black's twisty ninth Aimée Leduc investigation (after 2008's Murder in the Rue de Paradis
). At the address, an old building housing a comparative anatomy research facility, Aimée finds the corpse of a well-dressed black man with his ear cut off. The complex plot, which involves Haitian politics, history and culture as well as world trade and geopolitical corruption (not to mention Aimée's quest to discover if Mireille is really her half-sister), at times threatens to overwhelm the book. Still, Black creates an indelible portrait of a Parisian neighborhood as she explores how the past continues to collide with the present, with unpredictable and far-reaching results.

Starred review from November 1, 2008
Postcolonial politics and global commerce ignite the murder of a Haitian academic in Paris 's bohemian Left Bank.

Still recovering from the death of her fianc (Murder in the Rue de Paradis, 2008), Aime Leduc wants nothing more than to help partner Ren Friant land a fat contract for Leduc Detective to handle Arospatiale 's computer security. But she 's distracted by Mireille, an illegal immigrant from Haiti who claims to be Aime 's half sister, born of a liaison between Jean-Claude Leduc and her mother, Edwige, more than a year before Edwige 's murder by Duvalier 's tonton macoutes. A note from Mireille leads to Professor Azacca Beno —t 's office in the Latin Quarter 's Ecole Normale Suprieure, where Aime finds his body, minus an ear, inside a circle of salt. His file has disappeared —a file sought with equal urgency by Madame Lonie Obin of the Haitian trade delegation and her radical nephew Edouard, who stand on opposite sides in Haiti 's negotiations with Hydrolis, their French water supplier. Aime 's search for Mireille becomes all the more pressing when Darquin, the night watchman at Beno —t 's Osteologique Anatomie Compare lab, is pushed to his death into traffic, and Huby, Benoit 's research assistant, is thrown from a window, leaving Aime frantic at the thought of losing the sister she never knew she had.

Black at her peak, with rich historical background and a vivid sense of place supporting her compelling narrative.

(COPYRIGHT (2008) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

January 15, 2009
Aimée Leduc is waiting for an important client when a Haitian woman enters and announces that she is Aimée's half-sister. "Quel choc!" Aimée agrees to meet her at a café but misses her, then follows a trail that leads to a dead man surrounded by a circle of salt. And so Black launches Aimée's ninth mystery ("Murder in the Rue de Paradis"), and it's every bit as good as the preceding eight. Like its predecessors, this work is infused with both sharp political/historical commentary and a strong sense of Aimée's messy but affecting emotional life. Even as she uncovers what happened to the murdered manhis work, relevant to a French water project and the parlous state of Haiti's water supply, interests both Madame Obin of the Haitian trade delegation and her radically opposed nephewAimée opens up in her typically heartfelt way to the idea of having a sibling, evidently born of a liaison her father once had with a woman who subsequently returned home to Haiti. Is Mireille really Aimée's sister? Perhaps. To save her life, will Aimée crawl through the worst tunnels under Paris? "Mais, bien sûr". Another pitch-perfect read from Black; highly recommended. [See Prepub Mystery, "LJ" 11/1/08.]Barbara Hoffert, "Library Journal"

Copyright 2009 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

December 1, 2008
Black returns to two of her favorite themes in this latest Aim'e Leduc novel: immigrants in Paris and the family history of her heroine. As usual, Aim'e, a computer-security analyst forever entangled in murder investigations, finds herself balancing paying clients against freelance sleuthing, and this time the mystery involves a Haitian woman who claims to be Aim'es sister. Is Mireille really the offspring of a long-ago liaison between Aim'es late father and a Haitian woman, or is she somehow part of a scam connected to Paris Haitian community? The body count grows as Aim'e follows the trail through the Latin Quarter and the Sorbonne to what may be an international scandal involving aid to Haiti. Blacks ability to combine the landscape of Parisian neighborhoods with the intricate politics of the citys many immigrant communities is what gives this series its appeal, despite the somewhat formulaic plot structure. Aim'es ongoingsearch for her fathers murderer and any trace of her vanished mother adds depth to the stories, and that family angle is heightened here with the possibility of a sibling. A solid outing in a dependable series.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2008, American Library Association.)