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A review by book_concierge
Murder in Belleville by Cara Black
2.0
2.5**
Private Investigator Aimée Leduc is asked to help the sister of her friend, who suspects her husband of having an affair. The meeting takes place in an unusual setting for a powerful minister’s wife; Bellevillle is a working class neighborhood that is home to many Algerian immigrants. Aimée arrives just in time to witness a car bombing and barely gets the woman out and back to her husband’s mansion. But the woman wants to hire Leduc to investigate the car bombing, and she is quickly embroiled in a situation that has international ramifications.
This is the second book in the series, and I find that I like the premise of the series, better than I like the books so far. Aimée Leduc is a strong, intelligent, capable woman who doesn’t rely on a convenient strong man to help her (most of the time). I like her partner, Rene, a dwarf with a gift for computer science and surveillance, and I wish Black would give him more to do in the books. I also really enjoy learning about the various neighborhoods of Paris – the chic, and not-so-chic.
But Black seems to get lost in her intricate plots. There are so many threads to follow, so many suspects, so many different dangerous situations, and somehow they don’t really mesh well. Still, I see promise. This second book was a bit better than the first (though I still rate it only 2.5*), and I’d be willing to read another.
Private Investigator Aimée Leduc is asked to help the sister of her friend, who suspects her husband of having an affair. The meeting takes place in an unusual setting for a powerful minister’s wife; Bellevillle is a working class neighborhood that is home to many Algerian immigrants. Aimée arrives just in time to witness a car bombing and barely gets the woman out and back to her husband’s mansion. But the woman wants to hire Leduc to investigate the car bombing, and she is quickly embroiled in a situation that has international ramifications.
This is the second book in the series, and I find that I like the premise of the series, better than I like the books so far. Aimée Leduc is a strong, intelligent, capable woman who doesn’t rely on a convenient strong man to help her (most of the time). I like her partner, Rene, a dwarf with a gift for computer science and surveillance, and I wish Black would give him more to do in the books. I also really enjoy learning about the various neighborhoods of Paris – the chic, and not-so-chic.
But Black seems to get lost in her intricate plots. There are so many threads to follow, so many suspects, so many different dangerous situations, and somehow they don’t really mesh well. Still, I see promise. This second book was a bit better than the first (though I still rate it only 2.5*), and I’d be willing to read another.