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kb_hg's review against another edition
Dnf @ 25% I don’t have time for mediocre books.
kathieboucher's review against another edition
3.0
The fun Parisian setting and mood gets this one an extra star. Otherwise it'd be a two star book. Meh.
lavoiture's review against another edition
3.0
Perfectly acceptable, but the dialogue was so stilted parts were hard to read. Still, having just been to many parts of Paris that were discussed in the book, it was fun to read.
laurlaurmae's review against another edition
Did not enjoy it. Couldn’t keep my interest
thriller_chick's review against another edition
3.0
Looking forward to reading more in the Aimee leduc series
liedora's review against another edition
4.0
I didn’t realise until I had finished reading this book that it’s actually number 13 in a long series centred around the main protagonist Aimee Leduc; and now I’ve read this one I will be visiting some of the others in the series to see if they live up to this novel.
I thoroughly enjoyed the way the main protagonist was written; she is intelligent, creative, has a certain effortless French chic and is filled with vitality, oh and did I mention she zips around Paris on a bright pink version of my favourite mode of transport – the Vespa. This character is so well-rounded and developed that it makes it easy for the reader to connect with them and actually enjoy reading about them as they move from one chapter to the next. However, she is not perfect and spends this novel blundering from one situation to the next, and has to be the most incompetent Private Detective in fiction. But the incompetence makes her endearing in an odd sort of way, and there are certain personality traits that appear that make the reader wonder if there might be a deeper reasoning for her actions and, sometimes thoughtlessness, in the way she treats those around her. The ‘life’ that the Author has written into their main character is not just served for them however, all the characters are filled with the same love for life and energy that she gives the main; this is one of the reasons anyone picking up this series this far into it, would want to go back and read the earlier books, to gain more knowledge and understanding of the players by reading their backstories. Although this book worked well for me as a standalone novel, I will be reading others from earlier in the series to see if I can gain anymore insight into the characters.
The insiders’ background view to life in Paris is very well detailed in this novel ranging from the busy street cafes, which are a big part of life in this city, to the hidden gems you can often discover as you wander off the beaten track; the surprise gardens, hidden statues and beautifully ornate buildings. Through their descriptions, the Author really brings this city to life and the reader can almost hear the mix of French and other languages coming out of the pages as they read. The plot can be slow at times, but I felt that this was a deliberate move on the part of the Author to fit in with the Parisian, and European, way of life; nothing is rushed and time is taken over everything. The speed the storyline moved made this book, for me, one to be enjoyed at a leisurely pace instead of turning the pages quickly in order to keep up with the action.
I would recommend this book to people who enjoy novels set in France, particularly Paris; lovers of the mystery genre and anyone who is looking for a leisurely but enjoyable read.
Originally reviewed on: http://catesbooknuthut.com/2013/10/24/review-murder-below-montparnasse-aimee-leduc-investigations-13-cara-black/
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
I thoroughly enjoyed the way the main protagonist was written; she is intelligent, creative, has a certain effortless French chic and is filled with vitality, oh and did I mention she zips around Paris on a bright pink version of my favourite mode of transport – the Vespa. This character is so well-rounded and developed that it makes it easy for the reader to connect with them and actually enjoy reading about them as they move from one chapter to the next. However, she is not perfect and spends this novel blundering from one situation to the next, and has to be the most incompetent Private Detective in fiction. But the incompetence makes her endearing in an odd sort of way, and there are certain personality traits that appear that make the reader wonder if there might be a deeper reasoning for her actions and, sometimes thoughtlessness, in the way she treats those around her. The ‘life’ that the Author has written into their main character is not just served for them however, all the characters are filled with the same love for life and energy that she gives the main; this is one of the reasons anyone picking up this series this far into it, would want to go back and read the earlier books, to gain more knowledge and understanding of the players by reading their backstories. Although this book worked well for me as a standalone novel, I will be reading others from earlier in the series to see if I can gain anymore insight into the characters.
The insiders’ background view to life in Paris is very well detailed in this novel ranging from the busy street cafes, which are a big part of life in this city, to the hidden gems you can often discover as you wander off the beaten track; the surprise gardens, hidden statues and beautifully ornate buildings. Through their descriptions, the Author really brings this city to life and the reader can almost hear the mix of French and other languages coming out of the pages as they read. The plot can be slow at times, but I felt that this was a deliberate move on the part of the Author to fit in with the Parisian, and European, way of life; nothing is rushed and time is taken over everything. The speed the storyline moved made this book, for me, one to be enjoyed at a leisurely pace instead of turning the pages quickly in order to keep up with the action.
I would recommend this book to people who enjoy novels set in France, particularly Paris; lovers of the mystery genre and anyone who is looking for a leisurely but enjoyable read.
Originally reviewed on: http://catesbooknuthut.com/2013/10/24/review-murder-below-montparnasse-aimee-leduc-investigations-13-cara-black/
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
henrismum's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.75
Audiobook (All of my entries on The Story Graph are audiobooks.)
#13 in series (I started reading this series on Kindle in October 2016 and I have been committed to this series since March 2021.)
Will I read other installments?Probably Not Maybe Definitely
I'm not enthusiastic about listening to more installments, but I'm committed.
Comparison to others in series: Not as goodAbout the same Better
This was so hard to listen to. The writing was not up to usual standards; combined with the subpar narration, this was not, just not very good. I cringed when listening. I was embarrassed when someone heard me listening to this. But, the last scene of the book had an interesting hook.
The narrator was Madeleine Lambert. I try not to be rudely critical, but this was a horrid narration. Ms. Lambert was new to reading this series and she just wasn't up to it. If she narrates the next one, I don't know how I'll handle it.
Source: Brooklyn Library
#13 in series (I started reading this series on Kindle in October 2016 and I have been committed to this series since March 2021.)
Will I read other installments?
I'm not enthusiastic about listening to more installments, but I'm committed.
Comparison to others in series: Not as good
This was so hard to listen to. The writing was not up to usual standards; combined with the subpar narration, this was not, just not very good. I cringed when listening. I was embarrassed when someone heard me listening to this. But, the last scene of the book had an interesting hook.
The narrator was Madeleine Lambert. I try not to be rudely critical, but this was a horrid narration. Ms. Lambert was new to reading this series and she just wasn't up to it. If she narrates the next one, I don't know how I'll handle it.
Source: Brooklyn Library
derekerb's review against another edition
4.0
Although I enjoyed it, as always, I probably enjoyed this one the least and found it the least of a "page turner". I kept leaving it and going back to it which is very much unlike me with this series.
For once I was glad on the back story parts with the family of characters I know and love : René, Saj, Morbier, Morlac and even Miles Davis. The main story however, of the Russians and the Serbs and such, lost me early on and I kept forgetting who was who and how they all fit in with each other. I suspect this was because I didn't really care for, or about, them.
SPOILER ALERT:
I am very glad to see René back where he belongs and I didn't particularly enjoy his, very obvious and a bit convoluted, Silicon Valley sub-plot.
Personally I really do not like what Cara's done to Aimée at the end here and feel this is not going to help the future of the series but rather hinder it...
All that said I am sure I will remain loyal and will be reading every future episode as well... I mean... How many other mystery series take place in my back yard?
For once I was glad on the back story parts with the family of characters I know and love : René, Saj, Morbier, Morlac and even Miles Davis. The main story however, of the Russians and the Serbs and such, lost me early on and I kept forgetting who was who and how they all fit in with each other. I suspect this was because I didn't really care for, or about, them.
SPOILER ALERT:
I am very glad to see René back where he belongs and I didn't particularly enjoy his, very obvious and a bit convoluted, Silicon Valley sub-plot.
Personally I really do not like what Cara's done to Aimée at the end here and feel this is not going to help the future of the series but rather hinder it...
All that said I am sure I will remain loyal and will be reading every future episode as well... I mean... How many other mystery series take place in my back yard?
telerit's review against another edition
2.0
DNF The book did not hold my interest and I abandoned it about 60% of the way through. For a bunch of people who were supposed to be detectives, they didn’t seem to be very good ones. René should have been much more suspicious about his new job, given the circumstances. Aimée just seemed clueless and lost. I am not inclined to read anything else by this author.
booksaremysuperpower's review against another edition
3.0
Francophiles, rejoice! There are books for people like us.
I've long been a fan of Cara Black's Aimée Leduc series, not because it is the best mystery fiction out there, mind you, but mostly because she captures a non-touristy Paris with story lines and plots that don't just follow traditional Parisians and French stereotypes as we know them. While each book is centered around a specific Parisian neighborhood, or quartier, she often highlights all the immigrants and groups of nowadays Paris, not just the native French, but Russian expats, Senegalese, Eastern European immigrants, Algerians- everyone who makes up the French diaspora in the modern age. It's refreshing and ambitious, to say the least.
Black's writing is not always the best, and this novel is no exception. She gets caught up in plenty of details and sometimes I find myself lost in who's who, even though the main character never has any issue. Also, (another reviewer pointed this out and I agree) Black does throw in quite a few French terms and phrases that are mostly unnecessary and would lose most of her audience who are not French speaking. Yes, we get it: the book is set in France. I would expect a "merci" or "alors" and a few slang terms here and there, but there is no need to constantly remind the audience her heroine is indeed French.
Some books are better than others, and while "Murder Below Montparnasse" wasn't my favorite, I still found myself falling in love with Paris in February and all its dark corners. The pace is FAST, and Black certainly does her homework and research to create such an intricate and complicated world. It's the late 90s Paris- a time period I'm particularly fond of since I lived in France from 1999-2000- and a Paris just on the cusp of the internet age. I still remember having to hunt down an internet café because most homes and French families still didn't have personal computers and most restaurants and historical sites had yet to create websites. Aimée Leduc is a computer genius but even so, she is still limited to the current time period and detective methods of that age, i.e. hoofing and footing it around town to get the answers she needs, rather than simply hunting around the web for a couple of hours. This also what I love about Sue Grafton novels- the authors make their heroines work for it, and in order to make the books remotely interesting, they have to encounter others and engage in dialogue. It makes for a usually fascinating and thrilling read, instead of just having the detective ponder through records online.
Still, I get a bit tired reading serial mysteries only because the main characters change little from book to book. A few events have transpired in Leduc's life, but by this point in the series (I don't know for sure, but we are in the tenth book or so) she's still irresponsible, still a slave to fashion, still clueless about men, is still haunted by her family past, still goes through turbulent times with her partner René, and still falls into the same trap as other fiction detectives, which is what I hate the most about mysteries in general: heroine gets nearly killed in almost every single book and never stops to think that either she is worst detective in the world, or perhaps she should look into a new line of business that is less dangerous. To her credit, Black throws in a cliffhanger at the end of the book and wraps up at least one mystery from Leduc's past (about time, in my opinion) that I hope will cause this heroine to grow and move on. Though I love these books set in my beloved France, even I need a bit more "oomph" and plausibility in order to keep reading.
I've long been a fan of Cara Black's Aimée Leduc series, not because it is the best mystery fiction out there, mind you, but mostly because she captures a non-touristy Paris with story lines and plots that don't just follow traditional Parisians and French stereotypes as we know them. While each book is centered around a specific Parisian neighborhood, or quartier, she often highlights all the immigrants and groups of nowadays Paris, not just the native French, but Russian expats, Senegalese, Eastern European immigrants, Algerians- everyone who makes up the French diaspora in the modern age. It's refreshing and ambitious, to say the least.
Black's writing is not always the best, and this novel is no exception. She gets caught up in plenty of details and sometimes I find myself lost in who's who, even though the main character never has any issue. Also, (another reviewer pointed this out and I agree) Black does throw in quite a few French terms and phrases that are mostly unnecessary and would lose most of her audience who are not French speaking. Yes, we get it: the book is set in France. I would expect a "merci" or "alors" and a few slang terms here and there, but there is no need to constantly remind the audience her heroine is indeed French.
Some books are better than others, and while "Murder Below Montparnasse" wasn't my favorite, I still found myself falling in love with Paris in February and all its dark corners. The pace is FAST, and Black certainly does her homework and research to create such an intricate and complicated world. It's the late 90s Paris- a time period I'm particularly fond of since I lived in France from 1999-2000- and a Paris just on the cusp of the internet age. I still remember having to hunt down an internet café because most homes and French families still didn't have personal computers and most restaurants and historical sites had yet to create websites. Aimée Leduc is a computer genius but even so, she is still limited to the current time period and detective methods of that age, i.e. hoofing and footing it around town to get the answers she needs, rather than simply hunting around the web for a couple of hours. This also what I love about Sue Grafton novels- the authors make their heroines work for it, and in order to make the books remotely interesting, they have to encounter others and engage in dialogue. It makes for a usually fascinating and thrilling read, instead of just having the detective ponder through records online.
Still, I get a bit tired reading serial mysteries only because the main characters change little from book to book. A few events have transpired in Leduc's life, but by this point in the series (I don't know for sure, but we are in the tenth book or so) she's still irresponsible, still a slave to fashion, still clueless about men, is still haunted by her family past, still goes through turbulent times with her partner René, and still falls into the same trap as other fiction detectives, which is what I hate the most about mysteries in general: heroine gets nearly killed in almost every single book and never stops to think that either she is worst detective in the world, or perhaps she should look into a new line of business that is less dangerous. To her credit, Black throws in a cliffhanger at the end of the book and wraps up at least one mystery from Leduc's past (about time, in my opinion) that I hope will cause this heroine to grow and move on. Though I love these books set in my beloved France, even I need a bit more "oomph" and plausibility in order to keep reading.