telerit's review against another edition
2.0
DNF The book did not hold my interest and I abandoned it about 60% of the way through. For a bunch of people who were supposed to be detectives, they didn’t seem to be very good ones. René should have been much more suspicious about his new job, given the circumstances. Aimée just seemed clueless and lost. I am not inclined to read anything else by this author.
booksaremysuperpower's review against another edition
3.0
Francophiles, rejoice! There are books for people like us.
I've long been a fan of Cara Black's Aimée Leduc series, not because it is the best mystery fiction out there, mind you, but mostly because she captures a non-touristy Paris with story lines and plots that don't just follow traditional Parisians and French stereotypes as we know them. While each book is centered around a specific Parisian neighborhood, or quartier, she often highlights all the immigrants and groups of nowadays Paris, not just the native French, but Russian expats, Senegalese, Eastern European immigrants, Algerians- everyone who makes up the French diaspora in the modern age. It's refreshing and ambitious, to say the least.
Black's writing is not always the best, and this novel is no exception. She gets caught up in plenty of details and sometimes I find myself lost in who's who, even though the main character never has any issue. Also, (another reviewer pointed this out and I agree) Black does throw in quite a few French terms and phrases that are mostly unnecessary and would lose most of her audience who are not French speaking. Yes, we get it: the book is set in France. I would expect a "merci" or "alors" and a few slang terms here and there, but there is no need to constantly remind the audience her heroine is indeed French.
Some books are better than others, and while "Murder Below Montparnasse" wasn't my favorite, I still found myself falling in love with Paris in February and all its dark corners. The pace is FAST, and Black certainly does her homework and research to create such an intricate and complicated world. It's the late 90s Paris- a time period I'm particularly fond of since I lived in France from 1999-2000- and a Paris just on the cusp of the internet age. I still remember having to hunt down an internet café because most homes and French families still didn't have personal computers and most restaurants and historical sites had yet to create websites. Aimée Leduc is a computer genius but even so, she is still limited to the current time period and detective methods of that age, i.e. hoofing and footing it around town to get the answers she needs, rather than simply hunting around the web for a couple of hours. This also what I love about Sue Grafton novels- the authors make their heroines work for it, and in order to make the books remotely interesting, they have to encounter others and engage in dialogue. It makes for a usually fascinating and thrilling read, instead of just having the detective ponder through records online.
Still, I get a bit tired reading serial mysteries only because the main characters change little from book to book. A few events have transpired in Leduc's life, but by this point in the series (I don't know for sure, but we are in the tenth book or so) she's still irresponsible, still a slave to fashion, still clueless about men, is still haunted by her family past, still goes through turbulent times with her partner René, and still falls into the same trap as other fiction detectives, which is what I hate the most about mysteries in general: heroine gets nearly killed in almost every single book and never stops to think that either she is worst detective in the world, or perhaps she should look into a new line of business that is less dangerous. To her credit, Black throws in a cliffhanger at the end of the book and wraps up at least one mystery from Leduc's past (about time, in my opinion) that I hope will cause this heroine to grow and move on. Though I love these books set in my beloved France, even I need a bit more "oomph" and plausibility in order to keep reading.
I've long been a fan of Cara Black's Aimée Leduc series, not because it is the best mystery fiction out there, mind you, but mostly because she captures a non-touristy Paris with story lines and plots that don't just follow traditional Parisians and French stereotypes as we know them. While each book is centered around a specific Parisian neighborhood, or quartier, she often highlights all the immigrants and groups of nowadays Paris, not just the native French, but Russian expats, Senegalese, Eastern European immigrants, Algerians- everyone who makes up the French diaspora in the modern age. It's refreshing and ambitious, to say the least.
Black's writing is not always the best, and this novel is no exception. She gets caught up in plenty of details and sometimes I find myself lost in who's who, even though the main character never has any issue. Also, (another reviewer pointed this out and I agree) Black does throw in quite a few French terms and phrases that are mostly unnecessary and would lose most of her audience who are not French speaking. Yes, we get it: the book is set in France. I would expect a "merci" or "alors" and a few slang terms here and there, but there is no need to constantly remind the audience her heroine is indeed French.
Some books are better than others, and while "Murder Below Montparnasse" wasn't my favorite, I still found myself falling in love with Paris in February and all its dark corners. The pace is FAST, and Black certainly does her homework and research to create such an intricate and complicated world. It's the late 90s Paris- a time period I'm particularly fond of since I lived in France from 1999-2000- and a Paris just on the cusp of the internet age. I still remember having to hunt down an internet café because most homes and French families still didn't have personal computers and most restaurants and historical sites had yet to create websites. Aimée Leduc is a computer genius but even so, she is still limited to the current time period and detective methods of that age, i.e. hoofing and footing it around town to get the answers she needs, rather than simply hunting around the web for a couple of hours. This also what I love about Sue Grafton novels- the authors make their heroines work for it, and in order to make the books remotely interesting, they have to encounter others and engage in dialogue. It makes for a usually fascinating and thrilling read, instead of just having the detective ponder through records online.
Still, I get a bit tired reading serial mysteries only because the main characters change little from book to book. A few events have transpired in Leduc's life, but by this point in the series (I don't know for sure, but we are in the tenth book or so) she's still irresponsible, still a slave to fashion, still clueless about men, is still haunted by her family past, still goes through turbulent times with her partner René, and still falls into the same trap as other fiction detectives, which is what I hate the most about mysteries in general: heroine gets nearly killed in almost every single book and never stops to think that either she is worst detective in the world, or perhaps she should look into a new line of business that is less dangerous. To her credit, Black throws in a cliffhanger at the end of the book and wraps up at least one mystery from Leduc's past (about time, in my opinion) that I hope will cause this heroine to grow and move on. Though I love these books set in my beloved France, even I need a bit more "oomph" and plausibility in order to keep reading.
creeker868's review against another edition
2.0
Premise was interesting. Usually enjoy stories about long lost paintings. This was my first Aimee Leduc mystery and it didn't really hold my interest. She doesn't appear to be a very competent detective as she seems to blunder from one mishap to another.
lazygal's review against another edition
4.0
A mystery series set in Paris? Yes, please.
Our Heroine, Aimee Leduc, is semi-involved with the police - her grandfather, father and godfather all were members of the force (although Dad seems to have been drummed out ignominiously) but she is supposedly a computer security person. And yet she gets involved with solving crimes, with a closet filled with disguises and a wallet with many different IDs (names, phones, occupations, etc.). In terms of darkness, this is more like Penny's Gamache series than a Rebus or Dalgliesh, and no where near the amateur sleuth cozies of Rita Mae Brown, Dorothy Cannell, etc.. That's all good.
The setting, Paris, is really brought to life for readers; even though I've spent time there and knew some of the areas, there were streets and histories that eluded me and made me want to get out my maps and travel guides to learn more. Again, that's good.
The main mystery is who is killing for the "new" Modigliani, a portrait of Lenin that has been forgotten in a storage unit for 70 years. There are Russians, Serbs, political activists and art thieves running through this story, not all of whom are working together. Aimee's role is to find the painting, but before she does there are at least two murders and several assaults. There's a side story about Rene, her partner, and his misadventures in Silicon Valley, but that doesn't seem to really have an effect here and could easily have been left out.
While this was so close to being a five star, what cost it were two things: clunky exposition and too much product placement. By "clunky exposition" I mean the many, many times when Aimee was supposed to be some place and the writing is something like "'Meet me at Les Invalides' - the former military hospital and where Napoleon is buried". It felt a little like the author was trying to cram in as much Parisian background as possible, when less would have done fine. The product placement comes from Aimee's closet. It doesn't really make a difference to the plot if she's wearing vintage YSL or Chanel or Sonia Rykiel, but we're told time and again who the designer is.
Still, this is an author and series I didn't know before... and as soon as possible, I'll be reading the previous books! Luckily, it doesn't seem imperative that you read them in order.
ARC provided by publisher.
Our Heroine, Aimee Leduc, is semi-involved with the police - her grandfather, father and godfather all were members of the force (although Dad seems to have been drummed out ignominiously) but she is supposedly a computer security person. And yet she gets involved with solving crimes, with a closet filled with disguises and a wallet with many different IDs (names, phones, occupations, etc.). In terms of darkness, this is more like Penny's Gamache series than a Rebus or Dalgliesh, and no where near the amateur sleuth cozies of Rita Mae Brown, Dorothy Cannell, etc.. That's all good.
The setting, Paris, is really brought to life for readers; even though I've spent time there and knew some of the areas, there were streets and histories that eluded me and made me want to get out my maps and travel guides to learn more. Again, that's good.
The main mystery is who is killing for the "new" Modigliani, a portrait of Lenin that has been forgotten in a storage unit for 70 years. There are Russians, Serbs, political activists and art thieves running through this story, not all of whom are working together. Aimee's role is to find the painting, but before she does there are at least two murders and several assaults. There's a side story about Rene, her partner, and his misadventures in Silicon Valley, but that doesn't seem to really have an effect here and could easily have been left out.
While this was so close to being a five star, what cost it were two things: clunky exposition and too much product placement. By "clunky exposition" I mean the many, many times when Aimee was supposed to be some place and the writing is something like "'Meet me at Les Invalides' - the former military hospital and where Napoleon is buried". It felt a little like the author was trying to cram in as much Parisian background as possible, when less would have done fine. The product placement comes from Aimee's closet. It doesn't really make a difference to the plot if she's wearing vintage YSL or Chanel or Sonia Rykiel, but we're told time and again who the designer is.
Still, this is an author and series I didn't know before... and as soon as possible, I'll be reading the previous books! Luckily, it doesn't seem imperative that you read them in order.
ARC provided by publisher.
bgg616's review against another edition
3.0
I would have given this a higher rating but Serbian mafia guys and Russian millionaires are not that interesting to me. Also some of the ways Aimee got info and in and out of out spots were a bit ludicrous.
ericgaryanderson's review against another edition
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.
nonna7's review against another edition
4.0
I fell in love with Paris a long time ago. I fell in love with this series only a few years ago, but it's been my gateway to Paris now for the last several years. I love Aimee Leduc - smart, sexy, rides around in a faded pink Vespa, has a beretta which she uses sparingly, a wide variety of phony business cards and id's as she pursues her next case at Leduc Detective Agency while simultaneously running a computer security company.
In the past she could rely on her business partner, Rene, to run that side of the business. However, Rene has left her behind to pursue an impressive offer from a Silicon Valley company. Meanwhile, Aimee has been given a 5000 Franc (these stories do NOT take place in the present) retainer to find a lost Modigliani that is a never before seen portrait of Vladimir Lenin when he was in exile in Paris.
For both Rene and Aimee things are not what they seem. Yuri, the man who hired Aimee, is found tortured to death and the painting is nowhere to be found. He had a relationship with her mother, someone Aimee has not seen she was 8 yrs old when her mother disappeared. Renee discovers that his Silicon Valley employers are not what he expected.
I'm not going to spoil the surprise, but there's a BIG one at the end! Loved this one as I have Ms. Black's previous books.
In the past she could rely on her business partner, Rene, to run that side of the business. However, Rene has left her behind to pursue an impressive offer from a Silicon Valley company. Meanwhile, Aimee has been given a 5000 Franc (these stories do NOT take place in the present) retainer to find a lost Modigliani that is a never before seen portrait of Vladimir Lenin when he was in exile in Paris.
For both Rene and Aimee things are not what they seem. Yuri, the man who hired Aimee, is found tortured to death and the painting is nowhere to be found. He had a relationship with her mother, someone Aimee has not seen she was 8 yrs old when her mother disappeared. Renee discovers that his Silicon Valley employers are not what he expected.
I'm not going to spoil the surprise, but there's a BIG one at the end! Loved this one as I have Ms. Black's previous books.
gwawrz's review against another edition
4.0
I really enjoyed this book. This was the first Aimee Leduc book i've read and i'm definitely considering reading the other 12 that came before it.
heyalisa's review against another edition
4.0
I listened to this one in the car. I liked the French details and the mystery was pretty strong.
carolsnotebook's review against another edition
2.0
I think if I knew Aimee and her friends more, I would have understood more of what was going on and why, but as it was, it seemed like Aimee made bad decisions, never paid any attention to her dog, let down her friends even though I think she was supposed to be loyal to them. I just didn't care, and I didn't understand what the big fuss with her mother was, but she kept obsessing over her and I had to wonder if this was standard for the series or just an add-on to this one. Aimee seems to have men-trouble and a fondness for vintage clothes, but I'm not really sure what makes her qualified to be a detective or run a computer security company, other than that she inherited the agency from her family and has friends who know their way around computers.
You can see my whole review at Carol's Notebook.
You can see my whole review at Carol's Notebook.