I discovered this excellent mystery on Goodreads. This is author Cara Black's first novel and she got off to a rousing good start. It is November of 1993 in Paris when private detective Aimee Leduc is stopped by a rabbi who asks her to decipher a 50-year old encrypted photograph and take the results to an older lady in the Marais (the old Jewish section of Paris). Aimee generally does not do this type of work anymore but Soli Hecht tells her that her late father assured him she would help him if he ever needed her and so she agrees very reluctantly to do so. And so begins a nail-biting, stylish, classy mystery/suspense novel that is a step above the pedestrian books of the same genre. There is a special mood, an atmosphere, to this book that paints as much a portrait of the words as illustrations would. You can step inside this book and smell the smells, see the sights, and hear the clatter of city life. You can feel the fear the older Jews feel as an old evil swoops into their midst and comes to life again. When Aimee Leduc carries the photo to the woman Lili Stern, she does not expect to find her dead in her apartment , an old style swastika carved into her forehead. The police are not helpful (and suddenly her father's old friend in the police force has the case mysteriously taken from him and his supervisor "moved") nor are the Jews of the neighborhood who live in terror of the young neo-Nazis swarming the neighborhood attacking Jews and Arabs alike. How does all of this tie in with the European Union Meeting to sign a new law that will enable the authorities to pick up anyone who is not a French citizen and imprison him/her indefinitely without judge nor jury or even attorney? Hartmuth Griffe is the German trade advisor who flies in to Paris as the representative of his country. He is terrified to be there because 50 years earlier, he was a Nazi in the Gestapo and it is only due to a group called the Werewolves that he avoided the fate of being tried for Nazi war crimes. They sprang him from a Russian camp after the war, gave him a dead man's identity and some plastic surgery, and now are pulling his strings. There is another reason he has avoided Paris. It was there where during the war, he, a Nazi of 18, fell in love with a 14 year old Jew named Sarah (a friend of Lili's), and kept her alive by giving her food, making it look like she went to Auchwitz, and hiding her. When he was sent away from Paris to Russia, he did not realize he left her pregnant. The child she gave away does not know he is half-Jewish and raised by anti-semites, is the leader of a dangerous Aryan organization who wants to see all Jews dead, a group Aimee must infiltrate. There is a lot of action here, a lot of excitement, and a lot of intelligent and crafty moves. I loved seeing Aimee's brain working! She's not perfect as her partner Rene, a dwarf who might be small in stature but is large in brains and talent, can attest. She will need all of her wits to help her stop the one person behind killings from the 1940's and the 1990's.
I found that this was over-plotted with an enormous number of characters and subplots which had odd jumps in continuity. When investigator Aimée Leduc interviews a key figure about half way through the book (Wednesday morning) I had no idea where that lead had even come from. When one of the big bad's henchman pops up towards the end I had no recollection where they had appeared previously. That is aside from some of the other absurd situations (a rooftop escape in designer high-heels) and interactions (Leduc has a few romantic liaisons with a seemingly completely inappropriate character) that the characters go through which you can somewhat forgive from an author providing entertainment.I was plodding through this very slowly for about 2/3rds of the way until the story did finally start to take off and i did finish it quite quickly then but am not likely to try another one.This was another reminder not to trust author blurbs, even from someone like Lee Child, whose sense of suspense I normally respect quite highly. His blurb of "One of the BEST heroines in crime fiction" sold me on this book and I feel quite betrayed by that as I had hoped this might be a new favourite series, especially with its Paris locale which is normally one of my favourites.The plot involves private investigator Aimée Leduc and her partner René Friant getting involved with a murder that turns out to be related to French collaborators with the Nazis in WWII. Dealings with the Jewish community in the Marais area of Paris, present-day international trade negotiations with nefarious subclauses and a neo-Nazi white power group are along to complicate the situation. In the end this all actually came together but not with any satisfaction for this reader.
What do You think about Murder In The Marais (2003)?
Sort of a Lara Croft of mystery - Aimee Leduc has a tragic history but is more than capable of handling herself and any situation. When she is emotionally blackmailed into a murder investigation she shortly realizes that this challenge is much more complex than she imagined. As other murders occur and she is threatened in every aspect of her life, she continues to pursue false leads despite all the mounting evidence that the solution lies in the past of the Nazi occupation of Paris during WWII. Although a terrible detective, Aimee throws in some James Bond type action with rooftop gun battles, steamy sex with the opposition, loads of accommodating friends, the latest fashionable outfits, local spots in Paris as backdrops, and the latest fancy technological gadgets. Late to the party, she does manage to capture the villain in the most Hollywood spectacular way possible, although she appears to escape any possible retribution for her actions (which seems altogether unrealistic and unlikely to me). Also thrown in is a sub-plot of romantic young love (Romeo and Juliet style) torn apart by being on opposing sides, now older will they learn to forgive and love once more? This is just so trite and badly handled I can't discuss it. Including the coincidence of their love child being conveniently one of the characters introduced.
—Korynn
This first novel in the Aimee Leduc PI series was flawed, but worth reading. I loved the idea of a private detective series set in Paris, and the plot--which begins with a murder of a Jewish woman, who had a swastika carved on her forehead--sounded interesting.What made it flawed were the highly unrealistic plot elements (running across Paris rooftops in high heels, amazing recoveries from fights and injuries, a superhuman ability to crack computer systems) and the lack of characterization. Too many characters, and not enough development of those many characters. According to other reviews I've read, she apparently makes some French errors as well (not that I would know). But flaws aside, it was an interesting read and it appears that her writing improves in subsequent novels (judging from the reviews).So I will go on in the series!
—Marie
THIS IS THE BEST BOOK ABOUT NAZIS I HAVE EVER READ!!! IT MIGHT EVEN BE BETTER THAN THE HISTORY OF HISTORY. sorry for yelling but that was important. This is a really coolly layered mystery novel set in france. you are dealing with nazi/conspirators/jews from the WWII era, but in a modern world filled with neo-nazis, so you get these great dynamics that ask us fundamentally would a nazi today agree with a neo-nazi, what power did people have, can a fundamentally good person be a fundamentally bad person? you know how wylie coyote walks off cliffs but doesn't fall till he looks down. This book walks off the cliff of postmodern ethics just like that, and for a while it just stands there, stares you down and says "yeah? what are you going to do about it". then it just strolls back in and walks off. in the end you're left a bit like... what the fuck happened to gravity. and of course you just shrug and walk it off. so I picked this up cause I'm working on making it so less than half the books I read this year are american, well setting aside turns out cara black is an american, but this is so good I bought the next three books in the series and world lit can go fuck itself cause I can't live without cara black at this point. I hope she doesn't turn out like simon beckett and have just written the same novel again, pray for these books, don't make me cry.
—Jasmine
