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A review by katherineep
The City of Blood by Frédérique Molay, Jeffrey Zuckerman
4.0
I loved the concept of this book. An art exhibit that is buried to be dug up 30 years later with great fanfare? That's brilliant and then when a skeleton is discovered in the remains of the buried art exhibit during the very public exhumation of that exhibit? Also brilliant! Now Nico and his colleagues have a 30 year old murder to investigate but are shocked when a recent series of murdes seem to have a tie in to the skeleton.
While the murders are very brutal and everything is clearly dealt with there's a distance to the book itself that will keep you turning pages but won't give you nightmares. The writing style approaches the murders from almost an academic perspective even though everyone is involved is very motivated to solve the murders. The book reminded me very much of early Aaron Elkins books which I gobbled up by the handful years ago.
It was fascinating to get a look into the French legal system, attitudes on art, on homosexual lifestyles, and just day to day life in Paris. There's a subplot with Nico's mother that I ordinarily would object to but the author did a fantastic job tying in to Nico's motivations to solving the murders.
My only complaint is that it was a little hard to keep the characters strait but I suspect that it is because I'm starting the series on the 3rd book. I think I would've enjoyed it more if I'd started at the beginning.
Full Review: http://iwishilivedinalibrary.blogspot.com/2015/01/city-of-blood-blog-tour-review.html
While the murders are very brutal and everything is clearly dealt with there's a distance to the book itself that will keep you turning pages but won't give you nightmares. The writing style approaches the murders from almost an academic perspective even though everyone is involved is very motivated to solve the murders. The book reminded me very much of early Aaron Elkins books which I gobbled up by the handful years ago.
It was fascinating to get a look into the French legal system, attitudes on art, on homosexual lifestyles, and just day to day life in Paris. There's a subplot with Nico's mother that I ordinarily would object to but the author did a fantastic job tying in to Nico's motivations to solving the murders.
My only complaint is that it was a little hard to keep the characters strait but I suspect that it is because I'm starting the series on the 3rd book. I think I would've enjoyed it more if I'd started at the beginning.
Full Review: http://iwishilivedinalibrary.blogspot.com/2015/01/city-of-blood-blog-tour-review.html