Reviews

Murder in the Marais by Cara Black

becca_sb1316's review against another edition

2.0

What a disappointment! I had so hoped this series would be better, but the first installment has soured my desire to read any more. Aimee LeDuc is cliched, constructed more as a hapless American who happens to be living in Paris rather than a French-American Parisienne, borne and raised in France. She also isn't very smart and makes the same ridiculous mistakes over and over again, with no apparent growth. The mystery itself is thin, capitalizing on neo-Nazi resurgence that began in the 1990s and has only gotten worse, but without any insight or nuance. The plot is utterly predictable and at times absurd. Worse, the writing is appalling. Black relies on high-school level similes, and thinks she can create Paris just by dropping the names of famous areas and street names. While she includes some background on the Marais neighborhood, for instance, the former Jewish ghetto in Paris, she does little to makes this neighborhood come alive as it existed during WWII and then in the late 20th century. It's like Black is trying to write a typical American mystery novel, but thinks setting her novels in Paris automatically gives them a French flavor. Perhaps the series gets better in subsequent installments, but I'm just not willing to invest more of my precious reading time.

bexwat's review against another edition

dark emotional informative mysterious sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

fallchicken's review

2.0

A set of mysteries set in Paris seemed like a good idea. Poor writing style drove me nuts. I'm getting really picky about this in my dotage. Cartoon character as lead investigator. Too much time describing her wardrobe. All too improbable.

raesofsun's review

Shallow, I never cared about her, her history, or her fashion.... Every body I know loves her, but she's not for me. 

louisekf's review

2.0

I agree with many other reviewers that the situations are outlandish and hard to believe. I was so looking forward to this, as I love Paris and this district (the Marais) is special. I doubt that I’d bother reading another book in this series.

ailish87's review

adventurous dark mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

joreads7's review against another edition

1.0

This book was very bad. The main character makes no sense. She is apparently an amazing hacker (which seems to just consist of her guessing people's passwords), but also a private detective who knows martial arts, but has absolutely no respect for the law including breaking into all sorts of places (The Victor Hugo Museum, and also peeing in his bidet and taking all his clothes to make an escape rope wtf), hacking government databases and letting people get killed left and right. It seemed like every other sentence of the book was about her choice of clothing, hair and makeup. During the final chase seen, she meets with the Neo-Nazi in a hair salon while being pursued by government agents, has a secret conversation with him in front of everyone in the salon, then stays to get her hair highlighted. That takes like 4 hours, maybe you should schedule your appointment when the contract killer hired by the prime minister isn't chasing you?
Also she is investigating Neo-Nazis, but constantly goes around telling everyone who will listen how she isn't jewish, and also sleeping with a Neo-Nazi who turns out to just be an undercover reporter! So bullet dodged.
Also she doesn't solve the mystery, it just kind of unravels around her in the most unbelievable way ever. NO STARS.

kizzie982's review against another edition

4.0

Great mystery read. Very dark images and moments of WWII France. Looking forward to reading more in this series!

asmyr42's review against another edition

2.0

The mystery itself was mostly fine, but the technological anachronisms - and the tech plays a huge part - ruined it for me. Frankly, I liked the movie Hackers, but I was a teenager at the time. In a murder mystery now, I can't turn a blind eye to coexisting floppy disks and high speed, high-tech hacking that can take place anywhere there's a computer in this odd, parallel 1990s Paris where sweet computers and laptops are absolutely everywhere.

fictionophile's review against another edition

2.0

I would not read another in the series, but I did find the WWII history to be the best part of the novel.