What do you think?
Rate this book
Aimee Leduc Investigations #20
Murder at the Porte de Versailles
Cara Black's riveting 20th installment in her New York Times bestselling Parisian detective series entangles private investigator Aimée Leduc in a dangerous web of international spycraft, postcolonial Franco-African politics, and terrorist threats in Paris's 15th arrondissement.
November, 2001: in the wake of 9/11, Paris is living in a state of heightened fear, with constant bomb alerts and ethnic tension high. For Aimée Leduc, November is bittersweet: the anniversary of her father's death and her daughter's third birthday fall on the same day. A gathering for family and friends is disrupted when a bomb goes off at the police laboratory—and Boris Viard, the partner of Aimée's friend Michou, is found unconscious at the scene of the crime, his fingerprints on the bomb fragments.
Aimée doesn't believe Boris set the bomb. In an effort to prove him not guilty, she battles the police and his own lab colleagues, collecting conflicting eyewitness reports. When a member of the French secret service drafts Aimée to help investigate possible links to an Iranian Revolutionary guard and fugitive radicals who bombed Interpol in the 1980s, Aimée uncovers ties to a cold case of her father's. As Aimée scours the streets of Teheran-sur-Seine trying to learn the truth, she has to ask herself if she should succumb to pressure from Chloe's biological father and move them out to his farm in Brittany. But could Aimée Leduc ever leave Paris?
November, 2001: in the wake of 9/11, Paris is living in a state of heightened fear, with constant bomb alerts and ethnic tension high. For Aimée Leduc, November is bittersweet: the anniversary of her father's death and her daughter's third birthday fall on the same day. A gathering for family and friends is disrupted when a bomb goes off at the police laboratory—and Boris Viard, the partner of Aimée's friend Michou, is found unconscious at the scene of the crime, his fingerprints on the bomb fragments.
Aimée doesn't believe Boris set the bomb. In an effort to prove him not guilty, she battles the police and his own lab colleagues, collecting conflicting eyewitness reports. When a member of the French secret service drafts Aimée to help investigate possible links to an Iranian Revolutionary guard and fugitive radicals who bombed Interpol in the 1980s, Aimée uncovers ties to a cold case of her father's. As Aimée scours the streets of Teheran-sur-Seine trying to learn the truth, she has to ask herself if she should succumb to pressure from Chloe's biological father and move them out to his farm in Brittany. But could Aimée Leduc ever leave Paris?
361 pages, Kindle Edition
First published March 15, 2022
192 people are currently reading
3480 people want to read
About the author
Cara Black
45 books1,355 followersCara Black frequents a Paris little known outside the beaten tourist track. A Paris she discovers on research trips and interviews with French police, private detectives and café owners. She lives in San Francisco with her husband, a bookseller, and their teenage son. She is a San Francisco Library Laureate and a member of the Paris Sociéte Historique in the Marais. Her nationally bestselling and award nominated Aimée Leduc Investigation series has been translated into French, Spanish, Italian, Japanese, German and Hebrew. She received the Medaille de la Ville de Paris for services to French culture. She's included in the GREAT WOMEN MYSTERY WRITERS by Elizabeth Lindsay 2nd editon published in the UK. Her first three novels in the series MURDER IN THE MARAIS, MURDER IN BELLEVILLE AN MURDER IN THE SENTIER - nominated for an Anthony Award as Best Novel - were published in the UK in 2008 and MURDER IN THE LATIN QUARTER comes out in the UK in 2010. Several of her books have been chosen as BookSense Picks and INDIE NEXT choice by the Amerian Association of Independent Bookstores. The Washington Post listed MURDER IN THE RUE DE PARADIS in the Best Fiction Choices of 2008. MURDER IN THE LATIN QUARTER is a finalist for Best Novel Award from the NCIBA Northern California Independent Booksellers Association.
She is currently working on the next book in the Aimée Leduc series.
She is currently working on the next book in the Aimée Leduc series.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 122 reviews
February 12, 2022
4 stars for a well written French murder mystery. I was not sure who the killer was until near the end. This is book 20 in the series and it would have worked better if I had read the previous books. Aimee Leduc is a private investigator. This book has her trying to prove her friend Boris Viard is innocent of the bombing of a police lab. He was found unconscious at the scene, with traces of Semtex under his fingernails.
Aimee does prove his innocence and find the real killer. There are many twists and turns. Aimee is a former French police officer and sometimes uses her expired police ID to get into crime scenes. She is also very concerned about her appearance. Whenever she leaves her office to go to a crime scene, interview a witness, etc. she always makes sure to bring her makeup bag. I mentioned this to my wife. My wife likes to read series in order. Between this being book 20 and the makeup obsession, she will not read this book.
The author is an American who makes frequent trips to France.
Thanks to the author and Soho crime for sending me this eARC through Edelweiss
Aimee does prove his innocence and find the real killer. There are many twists and turns. Aimee is a former French police officer and sometimes uses her expired police ID to get into crime scenes. She is also very concerned about her appearance. Whenever she leaves her office to go to a crime scene, interview a witness, etc. she always makes sure to bring her makeup bag. I mentioned this to my wife. My wife likes to read series in order. Between this being book 20 and the makeup obsession, she will not read this book.
The author is an American who makes frequent trips to France.
Thanks to the author and Soho crime for sending me this eARC through Edelweiss
April 20, 2022
MURDER AT THE PORTE DE VERSAILLES by Cara Black, Soho Press, Soho Crime. Out Mar 15.
I've read every book in Cara Black's Aimée Leduc series, so am a fangirl from way back. Murder at the Porte de Versailles is her 20th offering and one of her best yet.
Set right after 9/11, the tale finds Paris and the world on edge and fears are heightened in the City of Light when a bomb detonates at the police lab, rendering her friend Boris Viard unconscious. Explosive residue is found under his fingernails.
The story races ahead as Aimée tries to prove him innocent. Add in a possible connection to one of her late father's cold cases, plus current terrorist threats in Paris's 15th arrondissement, along with conflict with her daughter's father, and you have one thrilling read. Highly recommended!
Thanks to the author, Soho Press, Soho Crime, and NetGalley for the ARC. Opinions are mine.
#MurderAtThePorteDeVersailles #carablack#SohoPressSohoCrime #NetGalley
I've read every book in Cara Black's Aimée Leduc series, so am a fangirl from way back. Murder at the Porte de Versailles is her 20th offering and one of her best yet.
Set right after 9/11, the tale finds Paris and the world on edge and fears are heightened in the City of Light when a bomb detonates at the police lab, rendering her friend Boris Viard unconscious. Explosive residue is found under his fingernails.
The story races ahead as Aimée tries to prove him innocent. Add in a possible connection to one of her late father's cold cases, plus current terrorist threats in Paris's 15th arrondissement, along with conflict with her daughter's father, and you have one thrilling read. Highly recommended!
Thanks to the author, Soho Press, Soho Crime, and NetGalley for the ARC. Opinions are mine.
#MurderAtThePorteDeVersailles #carablack#SohoPressSohoCrime #NetGalley
October 7, 2021
Thank you Soho Press through NetGalley for Advance Reader Copy. This book will be available in spring 2022 - Don't miss it!
Tempo = Allegro and/or Presto! Start to finish the action is compelling and captivating. Aimee is enjoying a birthday party for her daughter with friends during what seems a perfect evening. Friend Boris has forgotten Chloe's present back at the crime lab and sets off to get it. This action leads to a complicated set of circumstances causing Boris to be under suspicion for bombing the lab.
Aimee and team take up the cause to clear Boris. There are other deaths caught up in the web of deceit and subterfuge and it takes a team to untangle and find the truth. Now reaching the 20th book in the Aimee Leduc series, I can truthfully say it just gets better!
Tempo = Allegro and/or Presto! Start to finish the action is compelling and captivating. Aimee is enjoying a birthday party for her daughter with friends during what seems a perfect evening. Friend Boris has forgotten Chloe's present back at the crime lab and sets off to get it. This action leads to a complicated set of circumstances causing Boris to be under suspicion for bombing the lab.
Aimee and team take up the cause to clear Boris. There are other deaths caught up in the web of deceit and subterfuge and it takes a team to untangle and find the truth. Now reaching the 20th book in the Aimee Leduc series, I can truthfully say it just gets better!
October 5, 2021
I really enjoyed this book because Aimee was so busy trying to save her friend, because he went back to his office to get a present for Chloé's birthday party and ended up being in a coma, but as a suspect in a bombing. Cara did a good job playing people against people and in the end had a good old fashion put-to with her main man. Love the banter, and who knows what will happen now? It's any man for hisself now. We will have to see in her next book. I can't wait.
May 14, 2022
Another Aimée Leduc mystery, complete with explosions, French anti terrorist organisations and police with grudges about Aimée and her father. Her friend, badly injured in an explosion has been taken into custody as the perpetrator. Aimée is pulling out all stops to prove his innocence. Her personal life once again takes a turn and we’re left wondering how she’s going to meet the new situation she’s created. Grrr!
Rene of course can always be counted on.
Rene of course can always be counted on.
March 17, 2022
I absolutely love the Aimee Leduc series, and I devoured the latest book over the course of two days.
Aimee's daughter, Chloe, is turning three. Family friend Boris, a lab tech, realizes that he has forgotten the child's gift at work -- and when he runs back to get it, the lab blows up. Boris is seriously injured -- and suddenly a suspect.
Aimee's relationship with Melac, Chloe's father, is strained for a variety of reasons -- and her attraction to Bellan, one of the investigators of the bombing, is not helping. But her main focus is on proving Boris innocent, and so she sets about doing so by any means necessary.
One of the things I love about these books is the attention to detail about the Paris neighborhoods in which they are set. I'm not super familiar with the 15th arrondissement, but I could visualize it clearly from Black's descriptions.
Also, I have to admit that the "whodunnit" threw me for a loop. That's always good.
Highly recommended.
Aimee's daughter, Chloe, is turning three. Family friend Boris, a lab tech, realizes that he has forgotten the child's gift at work -- and when he runs back to get it, the lab blows up. Boris is seriously injured -- and suddenly a suspect.
Aimee's relationship with Melac, Chloe's father, is strained for a variety of reasons -- and her attraction to Bellan, one of the investigators of the bombing, is not helping. But her main focus is on proving Boris innocent, and so she sets about doing so by any means necessary.
One of the things I love about these books is the attention to detail about the Paris neighborhoods in which they are set. I'm not super familiar with the 15th arrondissement, but I could visualize it clearly from Black's descriptions.
Also, I have to admit that the "whodunnit" threw me for a loop. That's always good.
Highly recommended.
April 10, 2022
I think I've lost my enthusiasm for the Aimee Leduc series. This book is just too hectic, too sprawling with characters and includes hair-brained actions by Aimee. I'm trying to remember if she was always this way. The last one of these books I read was two years ago (Three Hours in Paris) which apparently I liked, according to my review). But I just could not get fully entertained by this book. And her situation with her daughter gets more complicated, but I'm not sure I care about such a careless person as Ms. Leduc.
March 4, 2022
I love this series. Each book is like traveling to France without getting on an airplane. Black immerses her readers in Paris with fascinating details, all while giving us the latest adventure of private detective and Louboutin enthusiast Aimée Leduc. This time the story is set just after September 11th and a bombing has destroyed the city’s police crime lab and Aimée’s friend is the prime suspect. The story is tight, face-paced and sexy.
What I also love about this series is that each book stands on its own. You don’t need to read any of the previous books (although you should). Black is master of dropping her readers right into the action, whether they are old fans or new ones.
What I also love about this series is that each book stands on its own. You don’t need to read any of the previous books (although you should). Black is master of dropping her readers right into the action, whether they are old fans or new ones.
May 2, 2022
Entertaining as usual
July 30, 2022
I thoroughly enjoyed this. Loved the short, choppy chapters that made the story feel like it was moving In real time. If you want a book with a strong sense of place the author does an excellent job of bringing you into Paris-the cafe, the Metro, the streets, the language. It is probably one of the reasons I enjoy reading her books, this being the second. Even though this is a series about Aimee Leduc you don’t have to read them in order, you can pick each individually and not feel lost.
January 26, 2022
In Aimee's world it's just a few months after 9/11 and tensions are running high when a bomb blast at police headquarters injures a friend of hers. Even more disturbing is the bomb residue on his hands. As Aimee investigates she comes into contact with the secret intelligence service and a host of radicals, all complicating her quest to prove her friend innocent. Fast-paced and another terrific view of the neighborhoods of Paris. Plus the question looms; will Aimee take her baby to live in the peaceful French countryside with Chloe's father?
October 9, 2022
Cara Black is my favorite mystery writer. I love every book she writes and Murder at Port de Versailles is no exception. I find the Aimee Leduc series smart with engaging and relevant plots. Her character arc is emotionally engaging and her relationships with Rene and Morbier deepen the stories. I particularly like how Black doesn't spell everything out, but trusts the reader to understand along with intuitive Aimee.
June 4, 2022
This is how you write a series. The ongoing characters grow and change and evolve and I love reading about Paris. Aimee Leduc is lovably imperfect and sometimes even annoying but this fast paced series is always engaging and interesting. Totally recommend starting at the beginning of the series, but you will be glad you did.
March 15, 2023
Never heard of this author before. I picked this book for its cover. lol. Well told suspenseful story. I had no idea this was a series. This is #20. I liked how the author immersed the reader in the history of Paris.
April 5, 2022
Has many of the typical aspects of an Aimee Leduc investigation--love life problems, issues with her partner in the business, motherhood guilt, vintage fashion, Aimee's impulsiveness, etc. What I missed was sense of place at Porte de Versailles. Also I was disappointed that the ending was too tidy and quick.
As an aside to the publisher, why is the author photo so obviously a fake setting. Get a photo in a real cafe in Paris. After 20 books in the series you would think they could afford a better photo.
As an aside to the publisher, why is the author photo so obviously a fake setting. Get a photo in a real cafe in Paris. After 20 books in the series you would think they could afford a better photo.
September 2, 2022
I love the descriptions of Paris. Another excellent mystery that captured me on page one.
January 13, 2022
When a bomb destroys the police lab, one of Aimee Leduc's best friends is arrested for terrorism. She calls on all her resources to clear his name. She enlists the staff of her private investigative agency, her baby's daddy, and a voyeuristic teenager in her quest. As always, Ms. Black has given us a perfect mystery enriched by the color and atmosphere of Paris
March 27, 2022
I love this series, but this one was not the best. The killer was obvious (although not the motive) because what other purpose would his random appearance serve? It would be hard to keep a series going this long, it’s starting to get a little tired and contrived
July 13, 2022
Again, I read the E-Pub version.
I never want to read any of these again. I loathed every character in this book with the exception of René, Chloe and the teenager whose name I can't remember.
It starts of at the 3rd birthday party for Chloe where you meet, all at once - and are expected to remember, most of the major characters in the story. And the bad guy was telegraphed too early.
The book reads as if it was written by a journalist rather than a novelist. Perhaps a Society writer, since every blasted thing, makeup, mascara, clothing, shoes, perfume and pots and pans was described with its brand name. She makes mistakes in logic and description. At one point she has Aimée get in the car, turn on the defroster and complain abut the breeze it makes around her ankles. Since when, and in what world, do automobile defrosters aim their air stream down?
For me, it was just all-around annoying.
I never want to read any of these again. I loathed every character in this book with the exception of René, Chloe and the teenager whose name I can't remember.
It starts of at the 3rd birthday party for Chloe where you meet, all at once - and are expected to remember, most of the major characters in the story. And the bad guy was telegraphed too early.
The book reads as if it was written by a journalist rather than a novelist. Perhaps a Society writer, since every blasted thing, makeup, mascara, clothing, shoes, perfume and pots and pans was described with its brand name. She makes mistakes in logic and description. At one point she has Aimée get in the car, turn on the defroster and complain abut the breeze it makes around her ankles. Since when, and in what world, do automobile defrosters aim their air stream down?
For me, it was just all-around annoying.
March 28, 2022
It's just about a month after the terrorist attack on the World Trade Towers of September 11. It's also Aimee Leduc's daughter Chloe's third birthday. We have all the cast of characters on hand; Rene Friant, Aimee's partner in their computer security business, also secretly in love with Aimee, Melac, Chloe's father, a police officer, pressuring Aimee and Chloe to move with him to Brittany, her godfather, Morbier, (who, the last time we saw him, was at death's door. What's up with that, Cara Black?) and neighbors. Boris and Michou, a gay couple who love to babysit Chloe.
Just before it's time to open the presents, Boris discovers he has left Chloe's present in his office at the police crime lab. Off he goes to retrieve it. Later, after the other guests have left, Michou and Aimee realize that Boris still hasn't returned. Michou's cellphone rings. It's Boris's phone, but not Boris. A bomb has gone off at the police laboratory. The man who has Boris's phone refuses to give any more information.
And off we go into another fabulous Aimee Leduc thriller. We have the explosion at the police lab, a hostile flic at headquarters who (naturally) won't share information with Aimee, a dead homeless man, a secretive Iranian security guard, a peeping tom teenager, and Boris not only lying in a coma, but also a suspect in the bombing. Quel horreur! Stay tuned and read on.
Just before it's time to open the presents, Boris discovers he has left Chloe's present in his office at the police crime lab. Off he goes to retrieve it. Later, after the other guests have left, Michou and Aimee realize that Boris still hasn't returned. Michou's cellphone rings. It's Boris's phone, but not Boris. A bomb has gone off at the police laboratory. The man who has Boris's phone refuses to give any more information.
And off we go into another fabulous Aimee Leduc thriller. We have the explosion at the police lab, a hostile flic at headquarters who (naturally) won't share information with Aimee, a dead homeless man, a secretive Iranian security guard, a peeping tom teenager, and Boris not only lying in a coma, but also a suspect in the bombing. Quel horreur! Stay tuned and read on.
December 20, 2021
I keep reading these and slogging through the plots (this one is a little easier to follow than some other recent volumes) and I keep being annoyed by Aimee's constant mess of a personal life. My sympathies to poor Rene, who shouldn't love her, and to Martine--I hope Aimee gets all the designer clothes she borrows from her dry cleaned and returned intact. Daughter Chloe is off in the country with her papa for most of the book, so the blissful, perfect bebe bit only must be endured for a short time. Doesn't that kid ever throw a tantrum?
April 7, 2022
Another fast paced mystery set in Paris. Bravo Aimee Leduc! Plus c'est pa change. Aimee continues to be drawn in by helping friends, news of her mother, and her own curiosity. A great addition to the series. A huge bonus is the armchair travel to another part of Paris.
Keep em coming Cara Black.
Keep em coming Cara Black.
Read
April 27, 2022The newest in the series I call Nancy Drew for grownups is fun romp, comme d’habitude.
April 2, 2022
Cara Black’s Parisian Private Investigator Aimee Leduc returns for her twentieth mystery in one of the finest recurring series in the business. The latest installment is titled, MURDER AT THE PORTE DE VERSAILLES. I have been there since jump with this series, and I can state that this novel is perhaps the most exciting and literally explosive that I can remember from Cara Black in quite a while.
The action is set in 2001 not long after the events of 9/11 and the world is very much on edge. You can imagine that when a bomb goes off at the police laboratory the first thought Aimee and the rest of the Paris Law Enforcement has is that this must be the work of terrorists. What will make this case even worse is how personal it is going to become for Aimee. She is holding a birthday party at her place for her three-year-old daughter Chloe and all her closest friends and family are present. The only person missing is Boris Viard, who had left to grab his present for Chloe which he had left at his workplace --- the police laboratory.
Aimee receives a strange phone call which appears to be coming from Boris’ phone, yet the voice on the other end is not his and there are strange noises in the background. She asks for whoever is using the phone to identify themselves but all she hears is someone saying: ‘The robot is activated. Stand clear.’ She knew this could only mean one thing --- a bomb. Boris’ partner, Michou, was at the party and began to get curious about who Aimee was chatting with if it wasn’t Boris, it was then that a news bulletin came over the phone about potential bombing at the Police Laboratory. That thought also took Aimee immediately back to when her mother left her and her father when she joined some radical group that was involved with some deadly bombings when Aimee was just a young girl.
Aimee rushes over to the Police Laboratory with her colleagues and convinces the police at the scene that her friend was still inside where the bombs went off. Boris is found, but he is in bad shape and taken to the hospital where he is put into a self-induced coma. It turns out an officer was killed by the bombing, so this has now become a murder investigation. Aimee finds an officer named Bellan who works with Special Services to appeal to him for news on the case and the status of Boris, as she does not have a good relationship with the Detective in Charge, and she shows him a newspaper clipping that somehow was slipped into her pocket at the scene. Smeared across the clipping in black ink was the phrase: WE HAVE STRUCK AGAIN. The question on everyone’s mind is whether or not this current bombing was related to bombings that took place in 1986 at the hands of an Iranian funded terrorist group?
Aimee’s father worked the bombing case in 1986 and she digs up coverage from that event for use with her current investigation. She and her friends are all taken aback when they learn that Boris, still in a coma, has been moved to police custody as he is now considered a possible suspect. Aimee knows Boris was just at the wrong place at the wrong time and she offers her services to Bellan’s special investigative team handling the bombing case. She is accepted on to the time purely due to her legacy from the father. Now, part of this team allows her more freedom to investigate and she learns of a local boy named Hugo whose family is known to hers. Hugo lives in the apartment across from where the bombing happened, and he may have a photo of the bomber running from the location. He is also brought into the fold of the investigation in some capacity.
It begins to look more and more like the perpetrator must have had inside knowledge based on where and how the bombs were placed on the lab. Suddenly, Boris is looking more like a suspect but so are others who initially were assumed to be completely innocent. With Aimee’s assistance, the group is able to apprehend the remaining members of the 1986 group responsible for the bombings back then --- yet it seems that they are innocent of the current acts of terror. The quandary now for Aimee is how to unearth a murder suspect that may be directly under her nose before they strike again or potentially silence her altogether. MURDER AT THE PORTE DE VERSAILLES is incredible fun with Clara Black operating at the top of her game!
Reviewed by Ray Palen for Book Reporter
The action is set in 2001 not long after the events of 9/11 and the world is very much on edge. You can imagine that when a bomb goes off at the police laboratory the first thought Aimee and the rest of the Paris Law Enforcement has is that this must be the work of terrorists. What will make this case even worse is how personal it is going to become for Aimee. She is holding a birthday party at her place for her three-year-old daughter Chloe and all her closest friends and family are present. The only person missing is Boris Viard, who had left to grab his present for Chloe which he had left at his workplace --- the police laboratory.
Aimee receives a strange phone call which appears to be coming from Boris’ phone, yet the voice on the other end is not his and there are strange noises in the background. She asks for whoever is using the phone to identify themselves but all she hears is someone saying: ‘The robot is activated. Stand clear.’ She knew this could only mean one thing --- a bomb. Boris’ partner, Michou, was at the party and began to get curious about who Aimee was chatting with if it wasn’t Boris, it was then that a news bulletin came over the phone about potential bombing at the Police Laboratory. That thought also took Aimee immediately back to when her mother left her and her father when she joined some radical group that was involved with some deadly bombings when Aimee was just a young girl.
Aimee rushes over to the Police Laboratory with her colleagues and convinces the police at the scene that her friend was still inside where the bombs went off. Boris is found, but he is in bad shape and taken to the hospital where he is put into a self-induced coma. It turns out an officer was killed by the bombing, so this has now become a murder investigation. Aimee finds an officer named Bellan who works with Special Services to appeal to him for news on the case and the status of Boris, as she does not have a good relationship with the Detective in Charge, and she shows him a newspaper clipping that somehow was slipped into her pocket at the scene. Smeared across the clipping in black ink was the phrase: WE HAVE STRUCK AGAIN. The question on everyone’s mind is whether or not this current bombing was related to bombings that took place in 1986 at the hands of an Iranian funded terrorist group?
Aimee’s father worked the bombing case in 1986 and she digs up coverage from that event for use with her current investigation. She and her friends are all taken aback when they learn that Boris, still in a coma, has been moved to police custody as he is now considered a possible suspect. Aimee knows Boris was just at the wrong place at the wrong time and she offers her services to Bellan’s special investigative team handling the bombing case. She is accepted on to the time purely due to her legacy from the father. Now, part of this team allows her more freedom to investigate and she learns of a local boy named Hugo whose family is known to hers. Hugo lives in the apartment across from where the bombing happened, and he may have a photo of the bomber running from the location. He is also brought into the fold of the investigation in some capacity.
It begins to look more and more like the perpetrator must have had inside knowledge based on where and how the bombs were placed on the lab. Suddenly, Boris is looking more like a suspect but so are others who initially were assumed to be completely innocent. With Aimee’s assistance, the group is able to apprehend the remaining members of the 1986 group responsible for the bombings back then --- yet it seems that they are innocent of the current acts of terror. The quandary now for Aimee is how to unearth a murder suspect that may be directly under her nose before they strike again or potentially silence her altogether. MURDER AT THE PORTE DE VERSAILLES is incredible fun with Clara Black operating at the top of her game!
Reviewed by Ray Palen for Book Reporter
March 5, 2022
This is an exciting Paris mystery shortly after 9/11. Aimee has a birthday party for her 3 year old daughter, Chloe. Most of her friends are there, including Chloe's father, Melac, Aimee's godfather Morbier, her detective partner, Rene, and friends Boris and Michou. Boris forgot his birthday present and goes to his office in the Laboratoire Central de Police to get it. Michou gets a call from Boris' phone, but hears sirens sand an explosion. Aimee rushes to the site, and sees a crowd of people and Boris wheeled out on a stretcher. Boris has semtex under his fingernails, and the police hink he is a prime suspect, while Aimee knows he wouldn't have set off a bomb!
Meanwhile, across the street, teen Hugo has had a telescope in the window for an astronomy project, but it has filmed a lot of what is happening across the street. He was filming a scantily clad woman across the street, but the telescope slipped down to show the action in the street including a man running from the building as the bomb explodes. Hugo's grandfather recognizes the man and wants the film for blackmail to buy a new leg.
In order to help exonerate Boris, Aimee goes to work for Bellan, a man who used to work for her father and is in counterterrorism. She gets Rene and Saj to help. There were some cases still open in the Laboratoire, and the bomber could have been trying to destroy evidence, or it could be Iranians. Shortly before, a woman was killed in the park, and a man with the same last name had an accident in his car. A homeless man living in the park is poisoned, and he might have seen something. There was also something going on with the refrigeration units in the Lab, and the company working on them appears to be somewhat suspect. While Aimee is working to exonerate Boris, Chloe has gone to Brittany with Melac, and he is trying to get her to move there and be with him, while Bellan is becoming interested in Aimee.
There is a lot going on, and the more Aimee learns, the more danger she puts herself in. Hugo also appears to know too much and he is in danger as well!
Great exciting mystery in Paris
Meanwhile, across the street, teen Hugo has had a telescope in the window for an astronomy project, but it has filmed a lot of what is happening across the street. He was filming a scantily clad woman across the street, but the telescope slipped down to show the action in the street including a man running from the building as the bomb explodes. Hugo's grandfather recognizes the man and wants the film for blackmail to buy a new leg.
In order to help exonerate Boris, Aimee goes to work for Bellan, a man who used to work for her father and is in counterterrorism. She gets Rene and Saj to help. There were some cases still open in the Laboratoire, and the bomber could have been trying to destroy evidence, or it could be Iranians. Shortly before, a woman was killed in the park, and a man with the same last name had an accident in his car. A homeless man living in the park is poisoned, and he might have seen something. There was also something going on with the refrigeration units in the Lab, and the company working on them appears to be somewhat suspect. While Aimee is working to exonerate Boris, Chloe has gone to Brittany with Melac, and he is trying to get her to move there and be with him, while Bellan is becoming interested in Aimee.
There is a lot going on, and the more Aimee learns, the more danger she puts herself in. Hugo also appears to know too much and he is in danger as well!
Great exciting mystery in Paris
February 9, 2024
Murder at the Porte de Versailles
by Cara Black
Pub Date 15 Mar 2022
Soho Press,Soho Crime
Mystery & Thrillers
Netgalley and Soho Press sent me a copy of Murder at the Porte de Versailles to review:
In the wake of 9/11, Paris is in a state of fear. November is bittersweet for Aimée Leduc: the anniversary of her father's death falls on the same day as her daughter's third birthday. A gathering for family and friends is disrupted when a bomb goes off at the police laboratory—and Boris Viard, the partner of Aimée’s friend Michou, is found unconscious at the scene of the crime with traces of explosives under his fingernails.Boris Viard, the partner of Aimée's friend Michou, is found unconscious at the scene of the crime with traces of explosives under his fingernails after a bomb goes off at the police laboratory.
Aimée doesn't think Boris set the bomb. Trying to prove this, she fights the police and his own lab colleagues, collecting conflicting eyewitness reports. When a member of the French secret service drafts Aimée to help investigate possible links to an Iranian Revolutionary guard and fugitive radicals who bombed Interpol in the 1980s, Aimée uncovers ties to a cold case of her father’s.Aimée uncovers ties to a cold case of her father's when a member of the French secret service asks her to investigate Iranian Revolutionary Guards and fugitive radicals who bombed Interpol in the 1980s.
She has to decide if she should succumb to the pressure of Chloe's biological father and move them out to his farm in Brittany or run the streets of the 15th arrondissement trying to find the truth. Would Aimée Leduc be able to leave Paris?
I give Murder at the Porte de Versailles five out of five stars!
Happy Reading!
by Cara Black
Pub Date 15 Mar 2022
Soho Press,Soho Crime
Mystery & Thrillers
Netgalley and Soho Press sent me a copy of Murder at the Porte de Versailles to review:
In the wake of 9/11, Paris is in a state of fear. November is bittersweet for Aimée Leduc: the anniversary of her father's death falls on the same day as her daughter's third birthday. A gathering for family and friends is disrupted when a bomb goes off at the police laboratory—and Boris Viard, the partner of Aimée’s friend Michou, is found unconscious at the scene of the crime with traces of explosives under his fingernails.Boris Viard, the partner of Aimée's friend Michou, is found unconscious at the scene of the crime with traces of explosives under his fingernails after a bomb goes off at the police laboratory.
Aimée doesn't think Boris set the bomb. Trying to prove this, she fights the police and his own lab colleagues, collecting conflicting eyewitness reports. When a member of the French secret service drafts Aimée to help investigate possible links to an Iranian Revolutionary guard and fugitive radicals who bombed Interpol in the 1980s, Aimée uncovers ties to a cold case of her father’s.Aimée uncovers ties to a cold case of her father's when a member of the French secret service asks her to investigate Iranian Revolutionary Guards and fugitive radicals who bombed Interpol in the 1980s.
She has to decide if she should succumb to the pressure of Chloe's biological father and move them out to his farm in Brittany or run the streets of the 15th arrondissement trying to find the truth. Would Aimée Leduc be able to leave Paris?
I give Murder at the Porte de Versailles five out of five stars!
Happy Reading!
April 4, 2022
Parisian private investigator Aimée Leduc returns for her 20th mystery, MURDER AT THE PORTE DE VERSAILLES, which is perhaps the most exciting and (literally) explosive book that I can remember from Cara Black in quite a while.
The action is set in 2001, not long after the events of 9/11, and the world is very much on edge. Aimée is throwing a birthday party for her three-year-old daughter, Chloe, and all of her closest friends and family are there. The only person missing is Boris Viard, the partner of Aimée’s friend, Michou. He has gone back to the police laboratory where he works to retrieve Chloe’s present.
Aimée then receives a strange phone call that appears to be coming from Boris’ phone, yet the voice on the other end is not his, and there are strange noises in the background. When she asks who this person is, all she hears is someone saying, “The robot is activated. Stand clear.” A news bulletin then comes over the phone about a potential bombing at the police laboratory.
Boris is found in the rubble, but he is in bad shape and is taken to the hospital where he is put in a self-induced coma. It turns out that an officer was killed, so this has now become a murder investigation. Aimée shows Loic Bellan, an officer who works with the French secret service, a newspaper clipping that somehow was slipped into her pocket at the scene. Smeared across it in black ink are the words “WE HAVE STRUCK AGAIN.” The question on everyone’s mind is whether or not this incident is related to the 1986 bombings of Interpol at the hands of an Iranian-funded terrorist group.
Aimée’s father worked that long-ago case, and she digs up coverage from that time to help with her investigation. She and her friends are all taken aback when they learn that Boris, who is still in a coma, has been moved to police custody as he is now considered a suspect. Aimée knows Boris was just at the wrong place at the wrong time, and she offers her services to Bellan’s special investigative team, which they accept. She learns of a local boy whose family is known to hers. Hugo lives in the apartment across from where the bombing happened, and he may have a photo of the culprit running from the location.
It begins to look more and more like the perpetrator must have had inside knowledge based on where and how the bombs were placed around the lab. Suddenly, Boris is becoming a more viable suspect, but so are others who initially were assumed to be completely innocent. With Aimée’s assistance, the team is able to apprehend those responsible for the 1986 bombings --- yet it seems they had nothing to do with these current acts of terror. The quandary for Aimée is how to unearth a murder suspect who may be directly under her nose before this individual strikes again or potentially silences her altogether.
MURDER AT THE PORTE DE VERSAILLES is incredible fun, and it is wonderful seeing Cara Black operating at the top of her game.
Reviewed by Ray Palen
The action is set in 2001, not long after the events of 9/11, and the world is very much on edge. Aimée is throwing a birthday party for her three-year-old daughter, Chloe, and all of her closest friends and family are there. The only person missing is Boris Viard, the partner of Aimée’s friend, Michou. He has gone back to the police laboratory where he works to retrieve Chloe’s present.
Aimée then receives a strange phone call that appears to be coming from Boris’ phone, yet the voice on the other end is not his, and there are strange noises in the background. When she asks who this person is, all she hears is someone saying, “The robot is activated. Stand clear.” A news bulletin then comes over the phone about a potential bombing at the police laboratory.
Boris is found in the rubble, but he is in bad shape and is taken to the hospital where he is put in a self-induced coma. It turns out that an officer was killed, so this has now become a murder investigation. Aimée shows Loic Bellan, an officer who works with the French secret service, a newspaper clipping that somehow was slipped into her pocket at the scene. Smeared across it in black ink are the words “WE HAVE STRUCK AGAIN.” The question on everyone’s mind is whether or not this incident is related to the 1986 bombings of Interpol at the hands of an Iranian-funded terrorist group.
Aimée’s father worked that long-ago case, and she digs up coverage from that time to help with her investigation. She and her friends are all taken aback when they learn that Boris, who is still in a coma, has been moved to police custody as he is now considered a suspect. Aimée knows Boris was just at the wrong place at the wrong time, and she offers her services to Bellan’s special investigative team, which they accept. She learns of a local boy whose family is known to hers. Hugo lives in the apartment across from where the bombing happened, and he may have a photo of the culprit running from the location.
It begins to look more and more like the perpetrator must have had inside knowledge based on where and how the bombs were placed around the lab. Suddenly, Boris is becoming a more viable suspect, but so are others who initially were assumed to be completely innocent. With Aimée’s assistance, the team is able to apprehend those responsible for the 1986 bombings --- yet it seems they had nothing to do with these current acts of terror. The quandary for Aimée is how to unearth a murder suspect who may be directly under her nose before this individual strikes again or potentially silences her altogether.
MURDER AT THE PORTE DE VERSAILLES is incredible fun, and it is wonderful seeing Cara Black operating at the top of her game.
Reviewed by Ray Palen
January 19, 2023
It's disappointing. These books used to be creative, well-structured, and fun, with a strong sense of our protagonist, PI Aimee Leduc. In the 20th of the series, it felt like we're given only a cursory glance at Aimee's emotional life (an occasional "She missed her daughter Chloe terribly!") and a rather muddled plot. I did enjoy the setting, as usual, with all the delicious details of Paris.
In the wake of 9/11, Aimee is given special standing with the French Secret Service to help solve a case involving a bomb at the police laboratory ... and she has Personal Stakes because they're blaming Boris Viard, whose partner is Aimee's friend Michou. Aimee's best friend is Martine. Then we have the characters Medoc and Morbier. Honestly, it got confusing, and by halfway through I still didn't feel emotionally drawn in. The suspense in the plot relies on some bad timing and some unnecessary recklessness. Right near the end, Aimee finds herself tied up by the villain, but fortunately she manages to use a piece of Kevlar paracord to saw through her bonds, whacks him a good one, and escapes ... and all would end happily except that in another instance of bad timing, she stands at her balcony in the early morning, in her robe, waving goodbye to a man who did not, in fact, spend the night in her bed ... and who is there to see it? The father of her child, of course, with little Chloe in the stroller ...
I read a print version, and there are weird indents and spacing throughout. It doesn't affect the reading experience except to make me suspect that this book might have been rushed out.
In the wake of 9/11, Aimee is given special standing with the French Secret Service to help solve a case involving a bomb at the police laboratory ... and she has Personal Stakes because they're blaming Boris Viard, whose partner is Aimee's friend Michou. Aimee's best friend is Martine. Then we have the characters Medoc and Morbier. Honestly, it got confusing, and by halfway through I still didn't feel emotionally drawn in. The suspense in the plot relies on some bad timing and some unnecessary recklessness. Right near the end, Aimee finds herself tied up by the villain, but fortunately she manages to use a piece of Kevlar paracord to saw through her bonds, whacks him a good one, and escapes ... and all would end happily except that in another instance of bad timing, she stands at her balcony in the early morning, in her robe, waving goodbye to a man who did not, in fact, spend the night in her bed ... and who is there to see it? The father of her child, of course, with little Chloe in the stroller ...
I read a print version, and there are weird indents and spacing throughout. It doesn't affect the reading experience except to make me suspect that this book might have been rushed out.
June 24, 2022
This is my first Cara Black read, and I did enjoy it overall. I read for me like what Robert Ludlum would write if he wrote a mystery. In other words, it has a spy thriller feel at times and its breakneck pace is definitely a main feature. Black knows how to move the plot along succinctly, at times moving so quickly that it's hard to keep up with names and events. I did a lot of threading back through the book to look things up. I did like the setting since I have been to Paris before, but Black for sure works too hard at evoking France by constantly dropping in names and references to things like brands and French slang. It gets far too insistent on that score for my taste. The mystery itself is solid and Aimee Leduc does a good job unraveling it, along with her two assistants. There is almost no time for reflection in a book like this, so we never really get inside Leduc's mind, except to know that she misses her daughter and she is concerned about her friend Boris. I never felt charmed or interested by Leduc. This is my first encounter with her so maybe Black did some of that character exposition previously. Overall, I did like this book, though I will not be going out of my way to buy more books in the series unless I can get them cheap. I feel like Black works too hard at being politically correct and swashbuckling and doesn't pay as much attention to writing strong characters. Her strength is plotting and fast pacing, but I tend to enjoy characterization and philosophizing.
June 30, 2022
Cara Black's riveting 20th installment in her New York Times bestselling Parisian detective series entangles private investigator Aimée Leduc in a dangerous web of international spycraft, postcolonial Franco-African politics, and terrorist threats in Paris's 15th arrondissement.
November, 2001: in the wake of 9/11, Paris is living in a state of heightened fear, with constant bomb alerts and ethnic tension high. For Aimée Leduc, November is bittersweet: the anniversary of her father's death and her daughter's third birthday fall on the same day. A gathering for family and friends is disrupted when a bomb goes off at the police laboratory—and Boris Viard, the partner of Aimée's friend Michou, is found unconscious at the scene of the crime, his fingerprints on the bomb fragments.
Aimée doesn't believe Boris set the bomb. In an effort to prove him not guilty, she battles the police and his own lab colleagues, collecting conflicting eyewitness reports. When a member of the French secret service drafts Aimée to help investigate possible links to an Iranian Revolutionary guard and fugitive radicals who bombed Interpol in the 1980s, Aimée uncovers ties to a cold case of her father's. As Aimée scours the streets of Teheran-sur-Seine trying to learn the truth, she has to ask herself if she should succumb to pressure from Chloe's biological father and move them out to his farm in Brittany. But could Aimée Leduc ever leave Paris?
November, 2001: in the wake of 9/11, Paris is living in a state of heightened fear, with constant bomb alerts and ethnic tension high. For Aimée Leduc, November is bittersweet: the anniversary of her father's death and her daughter's third birthday fall on the same day. A gathering for family and friends is disrupted when a bomb goes off at the police laboratory—and Boris Viard, the partner of Aimée's friend Michou, is found unconscious at the scene of the crime, his fingerprints on the bomb fragments.
Aimée doesn't believe Boris set the bomb. In an effort to prove him not guilty, she battles the police and his own lab colleagues, collecting conflicting eyewitness reports. When a member of the French secret service drafts Aimée to help investigate possible links to an Iranian Revolutionary guard and fugitive radicals who bombed Interpol in the 1980s, Aimée uncovers ties to a cold case of her father's. As Aimée scours the streets of Teheran-sur-Seine trying to learn the truth, she has to ask herself if she should succumb to pressure from Chloe's biological father and move them out to his farm in Brittany. But could Aimée Leduc ever leave Paris?
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 122 reviews