Murder in the Latin Quarter (An Aimee Leduc Investigation, Vol. 9)

Compelling narrative it is not! Charming it is not! "Murder in the Latin Quarter" is not Cara Black's best tale by a long shot. It's a truly weird plot with uninteresting "scientific" substance about an obscure topic that never grabs the reader's imagination. The story is populated by strange and unlikable characters, many from Haiti. There's way too much breathless, contrived tension, running and barely escaping the flics or the bad guys, too many completely unbelievable near-death episodes, and too many just plain not-to-be-believed scenarios.

Among the worst subplots is the entire not-to-be-believed-for-one-second story of Aimee's alleged half-Haitian sister -- simply a bad farce.

The main problem for me was Black's apparent blending of - or confusion with - a detective story on one hand and a blah James Bond spy thriller on the other. She fails completely at this mix. Aimee Leduc is smart and resourceful (like Cara Black, no doubt), does sleep around a bit, and leans too much of friends when she's in a jam (half the book). While Paris is very interesting geographically, historically, and culturally, Black regales us with too many touristy descriptions, especially the overdone and terribly boring visits to the Catacombs of "Subterranean Paris."

Black was clever in tying the timeline of her story to the days immediately following the car crash death of Princess Diana, particularly in how Aimee used the panicked police department to help her (rather dishonestly) locate bad guys' van. Aimee's apparent amorality about absolutely everything is rather disturbing. She is hardly the epitome of an upstanding citizen and may in fact suffer from some sociopathic tendencies. And, what was that very strange and patronizing connection to the Haitians and AIDS? Odd, indeed.

There are simply too many uninteresting characters, most of whom were stick figures, utilizing shop-worn stereotypes, too much coincidence (the Cavalry riding in at the last moment to save poor Aimee), a very, very thin "plot," and an over-embellishment of that wafer-thin story line. All-in-all, "Murder in the Latin Quarter" is a badly written, terribly boring "romp" through tourist Paris, with the always-unbelievably-running-desperately-for-her-insignificant-life Aimee!

This one is definitely NOT Anthony Award nomination material. Actually Black should be a little embarrassed at this debacle. Better try next time, Cara. This one's a dud-and-a-half!

Aimée Leduc continues to lead us on charming, but inevitably wrong-headed and usually bloody, pélerinages through the streets of Paris. And for those who know enough of the city to recognize her waypoints, the journey can be very entertaining. Aimée, though, could stand to grow up a little, or least to show some sign that she is learning from her adventures. It would be interesting to see her break away from the now run-of-the-mill headstrong you-can't-tell-ME-what-to-do female PI of the V. I. Warshawski type, and start to develop into a woman who does something more than blow off her obligations and use her friends in pursuit of her own 'satiable curiosity.

I have really been enjoying this series of mysteries. I love Paris and I love all the tidbits of information that Cara Black provides on each arrondissement that the novels take place in. Aimee Leduc kicks some serious butt too which is always fun!

This is the best of the series in quite a while. Aimee is back at her best when she's not trying to play investigator but doing an investigation. It's September 1997, and Lady Di has just been killed in a car crash, a woman comes to Leduc Investigations and says she is Aimee half-sister. She is an Haitian and referred to as a kryol, coco or mulatto, none of which is a complement in her homeland.

She gets Aimee mixed up in murder, polluted water, the IMF and World Bank and the continuing raping of the poorest country in the world. All this is partially explained in the constantly more complicated plot and interrelations among the characters. But in between we get a great personalized tour of the Latin Quarter, the Sorbonne and surrounding Ecoles, and the catacombs below the schools. We are treated to 'cataphiles' and 'cataflics' who constantly battle for use and control of parts of Paris underground.

We also get a polemic on the problems of 'foreigners' in France, especially illegals who are brought to France but human traffickers who terrorize these people trying to get away from the horrors at home. Just like in a lot of countries, poor illegal immigrants are needed to do the jobs no one else wants to do, but that doesn't mean that they are ever welcome or treated well. Just because you pick-up my garbage and clean my streets isn't a reason to treat you any different from what you do. France does a good job of ignoring the contributions of those from their ex-colonies except when they riot, then they consider them like ungrateful children.

Zeb Kantrowitz

Murder in the Latin Quarter is one of a series of mysteries by Cara Black, set in Paris, featuring Aimée Leduc, a private detective specializing in computer security. Aimée is always fashionably dressed in designer clothes, and capable of great physical feats, even in high heels. Black began the series in the 1990s, and she keeps the setting in the 1990s. This particular book takes place in 1997, shortly after Princess Diana’s death, which becomes significant because the police department is so focused on investigating what happened to Diana that they cannot help Aimée solve the crime. Not even her mentor, Commissaire Morbier, can be of much assistance.

At the beginning of the novel, a Haitian woman, Mireille, comes to Aimée’s office and claims to be her half-sister, the daughter of Aimée’s father and a Haitian woman with whom he had an affair before he met Aimée’s mother. The only evidence she has is some old photographs of Aimée’s father, but Aimée wants to believe her, because she has always wanted to have a sister. Aimée’s father was killed in a bombing, and her American mother, a 1970s political activist, abandoned her when she was a child, and so Aimée has no family. But Mireille disappears just when she is about to tell Aimée more about why she thinks she might be her sister, and leaves behind an address in the Latin Quarter, Paris’ medieval university district.

When Aimée goes to the address Mireille gave her, she finds the dead body of a Haitian scientist, a professor at the university, whose murder was made to resemble a voodoo ritual. Mireille has disappeared again, and now she is the prime suspect. The professor had given Mireille refuge in Paris, after she was taken from Haiti by human traffickers who stole her papers. Mireille was seen quarreling with the professor shortly before his death. But Aimée is certain she is innocent. Two witnesses who could have cleared Mireille are murdered one after the other, just when they’re about to talk to Aimée, and their deaths are made to seem like an accident and a suicide. With no witnesses, Aimée has no evidence to clear her supposed sister, and, to make matters worse, the police are beginning to suspect Aimée as an accomplice. She is determined to get to the bottom of the matter as soon as possible. Her investigations uncover a scandal involving an organization, supposedly a charity giving aid to Haiti, but which may be involved in financial shenanigans and in supplying contaminated water to Haiti. The murdered professor, it seems, uncovered evidence of water pollution and placed his findings in an envelope he gave to Mireille, which disappeared along with her. Now Aimée needs to find the envelope and prove that the professor’s discovery led to his death.

Meanwhile, Aimée’s business partner, René Friant, an expert in martial arts in spite of his diminutive size, is suspicious of Mireille’s claim to be Aimée’s half-sister. A sibling would have a claim to part of Aimée’s inheritance from her father, including her apartment and the detective agency, and René thinks Mireille is scheming to get the inheritance. Aimée decides to get her and Mireille’s DNA tested to prove whether or not Mireille is her sister. René struggles with his own attraction to Aimée, of which she is as yet unaware, even after years of being partners in the agency. She is attracted to bad boys, and her romances usually end in tragedy or heartbreak.

Murder in the Latin Quarter is a very exciting, suspenseful mystery, with Aimée seeking to uncover not only a crime, but the secrets of her own past. As always in this series, Cara Black brings Paris vividly to life for the reader. Each book is set in a different neighborhood, and very often the settings are not the areas where tourists usually go. The Latin Quarter comes to life with its twisting side streets, not much changed from its medieval origins, and Black vividly conveys the sights, sounds, smells, and tastes of the district, with its student hangouts and cafés. Cara Black always makes you want to go to Paris. Not to give away what happens, but this book ends with a cliffhanger that makes the reader wonder what is in store for Aimée in her next adventure.

Unlike most detective series where I stumble into them somewhere in the middle and then backtrack to catch up, I discovered Aimée Leduc and began with the first book, Murder in the Marais. Not only was the book well plotted with great characters, but each of her books is like a mini tour of a particular section of Paris. Volume 9, Murder in the Latin Quarter gives us a little view of the Sorbonne and the area around it. It also lives up to Black's usual style of twisted plots and lots of actions, all with a decidedly Parisian style.

Whew!!!! Slow down a little bit Clara. A good mystery, like a good classical music piece, should have slow times that build up to the climactic sections. This book is ALL extremely energetic moments of danger...and they happen so fast it stretches credulity for me. Aimee no sooner escapes from the clutches of one villain, then she is thrust into the claws of the next. What this book needed was a few slow times, where Aimee could get some sleep and feed the dog, and give the reader enough space to absorb the last action scene. I enjoyed the views of Paris and it's history though. Not sure my heart can take another one like this though.