A review by ericgaryanderson
Murder Below Montparnasse by Cara Black

3.0

#13 in the series, so obviously Cara Black and Aimee Leduc have lots of fans. I dipped in because I went to Paris last summer and was especially intrigued by the Modigliani angle in this book. (There's a long-lost/previously unknown Modigliani painting—of Lenin!—and all sorts of French and Serbian Mafia hijinks once the painting comes into view.) I made my way all the way through the book—yay—but was underwhelmed, though. Mostly I was distracted and mildly annoyed by small things: repetition of ostensibly local tics and quirks (okay, maybe EVERYONE in Paris doesn't pick up their phone, but jeez), guide-book/Wikipedia style local info that seems pasted in, and capsule summaries and reminders of things that literally JUST happened. Also, let there be NO DOUBT that Aimee Leduc has mother abandonment issues and is up in a tizzy about them about every 4-6 pages. Plot: okay. Solution to mystery: fairly surprising but not an earthshaker. Writing: meh. Paris setting: sometimes nicely evoked, sometimes Wikipedian.