A review by nonna7
Murder in Bel-Air by Cara Black

4.0

I read this one quickly - staying up just a little too late last night because I was at the point of no return. It seems as if this is the last Aimee book. She seems to have found love. So I’m feeling a little sad about that although I’m looking forward to reading Black’s next book which takes place during World War II. This book finds Aimee thrust into an international situation in the Ivory Coast, formerly occupied by France, now a country where business is still primarily French.

The fun starts when Aimee is called out of a tech conference where she is to be the keynote speaker because her baby, Chloe, was left alone at a playgroup. In the last book Aimee’s mother, Sidney, came back into her life after years leading a shadowy existence with the CIA. When she disappears Aimee thinks that she has simply decided to abandon her and her daughter again. However she soon learns that her mother spent time volunteering at a soup kitchen and had befriended one of the women who frequented there. The woman is murdered and Aimee learns that she was a prominent DJ and involved in a specific type of African music in the Ivory Coast.

The plot is interesting and somewhat convoluted, but it’s a lot of fun and an interesting look at a bit of French history. If this is the last Aimee, I am going to be sad. I would love to see more of her in a domestic setting still solving crimes.