Aimee Leduc Investigations

PI Aimee Leduc must decrypt a digitized photo from the 1940s. But when Aimee visits the historic Jewish quarter of Paris to deliver the picture, she finds its intended recipient murdered-and with a swastika carved in her aged forehead. "Literate prose, intricate plotting, and multifaceted and unusual characters mark this excellent first mystery. Strongly recommended."-Library Journal

Tension runs high in this working-class neighborhood as a hunger strike to protest strict immigration laws escalates among the Algerian immigrants. Aimee barely escapes death in a car bombing in this tale of terrorism and greed in the shadows of Paris.

Anthony Award nominee Cara Black has garnered international acclaim for the authentic characterization and tantalizing suspense of her Aimee Leduc series. In this third entry-set in 1994 Paris-Aimee fears that a 1960s Communist gang is on the loose-and her long-lost mother just may be one of them.

Aimee Leduc is all dressed up in her new Chinese silk jacket, supposedly an "exclusive," for dinner with a difficult client at an elegant restaurant in the Bastille district. She is chagrined to see that the woman seated at the very next table is wearing an identical jacket. When the woman leaves her cell phone on the table, Aimee follows her to return it and is attacked in the shadowy Passage Boule Blanche. When she regains consciousness, Aimee finds that she is blind. Nevertheless, she is told she is lucky; the woman she was following was found in the next passage, murdered. Aimee is determined to identify her attacker. Was he actually a serial killer targeting showy blondes as the police insist? Was he really after the other woman? Or was Aimee his intended victim?

Spirited Aimee Leduc, a private investigator based in Paris, has been introduced to the Cao Dai temple by her partner, Rene, who urges her to learn to meditate as a counterbalance to her frenetic lifestyle. A Vietnamese nun asks her for a favor-to hand over a check and bring a package back to the temple. But this act of kindness ends in a stranger's death and leaves her with a bullet wound in the arm, a check for 50,000 francs and a trove of ancient jade artifacts whose provenance is a mystery. The French secret service, a group of veterans of the war in Indochina, some wealthy ex-colonials, and contending international oil companies all claim the jade. They will stop at nothing to gain possession of it. And the nun has disappeared. Aimee has promised to avoid danger, but it continues to seek her out.

Her partner, Jacques, has set up a meeting in Montmartre with an informer. When Laure goes along as backup, Jacques is lured to a rooftop, where he is shot to death. Laure's gun has been fired, gunpowder residue is on her hands, and she is charged with her partner's murder. The police close ranks against the alleged cop killer. Aimee is determined to clear Laure's name. In doing so, she encounters separatist terrorists, Montmartre prostitutes, a surrealist painter's stepdaughter, and a crooked Corsican bar owner, and learns of "Big Ears"-the French "ear in the sky" that records telephonic and electronic communications for the security services. Identifying Jacques' murderer brings her closer to solving her own father's death, which still haunts her. She cannot rest until she finds out who was responsible.

Cara Black has earned a devoted international following for her gripping mysteries set in France and starring the indomitable Aimee Leduc. Here, Aimee faces her greatest challenge when she assumes guardianship of an abandoned infant all the while being hunted by a killer in the sewers beneath the Seine.

Cara Black's novel follows a chic heroine into the recesses of French society. When her ex-lover returns from Egypt, Aimee accepts his marriage proposal. The next day he's found dead, and she begins tracking clues pointing toward an international conspiracy.

Cara Black's Aimee Leduc mystery series transports listeners to the streets of Paris for dark crime stories. Working in her office, Aimee is surprised by Mireille, a Haitian immigrant who claims to be her sister. But before Aimee can learn more, Mireille disappears, leaving only a note behind. Following up on the note, Aimee soon becomes wrapped up in a sprawling international conspiracy.

Cara Black has won fans around the globe for her Paris-based mysteries starring AimEe Leduc. When suspicion falls on AimEe after her partner is shot, the beleaguered sleuth must race to prevent more violence.

Cara Black's best-selling Aimee Leduc mysteries feature a streetwise PI who calls Paris her home. In her 11th outing, Aimee is faced with her most daunting challenge yet. Her godfather and mentor Commissaire Morbier is accused of murder, and it's up to Aimee to clear his name. But as she investigates, she uncovers a terrifying conspiracy involving police corruption and Basque terrorists.

Aimee Leduc is happy that her long-time business partner Rene has found a girlfriend. Really, she is. It's not her fault if she can't suppress her doubts about the relationship; Rene is moving way too fast, and Aimee's instincts tell her Meizi, this supposed love of Rene's life, isn't trustworthy. And her misgivings may not be far off the mark. Meizi disappears during a Chinatown dinner to take a phone call and never comes back to the restaurant. Minutes later, the body of a young man, a science prodigy and volunteer at the nearby Musee, is found shrink-wrapped in an alley-with Meizi's photo in his wallet. Aimee does not like this scenario one bit, but she can't figure out how the murder is connected to Meizi's disappearance. The dead genius was sitting on a discovery that had France's secret service keeping tabs on him. Now they're keeping tabs on Aimee. A missing young woman, an illegal immigrant raid in progress, botched affairs of the heart, dirty policemen, the French secret service, cutting-edge science secrets, and a murderer on the loose-what has she gotten herself into? And can she get herself-and her friends-back out of it all alive?

A long-lost Modigliani portrait, a grieving brother's blood vendetta, a Soviet secret that's been buried for eighty years-Parisian private investigator Aimée Leduc's current case is her most exciting one yet. When Aimée's long-term partner and best friend Rene leaves their detective agency for a new job in Silicon Valley, Aimée knows she can handle the extra workload. At least, that what she tells herself … repeatedly. But all bets are off when Yuri Volodya, a mysterious old Russian man, hires Aimée to protect a painting. By the time she gets to his Montparnasse atelier, the precious painting has already been stolen, leaving Aimée smelling a rat. The next day, Yuri is found tortured to death in his kitchen. To top it all off, it looks like Aimée isn't the only one looking for the painting. Some very dangerous people are threatening her and her coworkers, and witnesses are dropping like flies. Now Aimée has to find the painting, stop her attackers, and figure out what her long-missing mother, who is on Interpol's most wanted list, has to do with all this-fingers crossed she wasn't Yuri's murderer, despite clues pointing in that direction. Obviously, Rene doesn't need to worry. Aimée has things under control.

June, 1998. Paris' sticky summer heat is even more oppressive than usual as rowdy French football fans riot in anticipation of the World Cup. Private investigator Aimée Leduc has been trying to slow down her hectic lifestyle, take on only computer security assignments, and maybe try to learn how to cook (quelle catastrophe!). She's vowed not to let herself get involved in any more dangerous shenanigans-she's five months pregnant and has the baby's well-being to think about now, too.But all of her best intentions to live the quiet life fall away when disaster strikes close to home. A serial rapist has been terrorizing Paris' Pigalle neighborhood, following teenage girls home from junior high school and attacking them in their own houses. It is sad and frightening but has nothing to do with Aimée-until Zazie, the fourteen-year-old daughter of the proprietor of Aimée's favorite café, disappears. The police aren't mobilizing quickly enough, and when Zazie's desperate parents approach Aimée for help, she knows she couldn't say no even if she wanted to. In the frantic race against time that ensues, Aimée discovers a terrifying secret neighborhood history that will leave lives in the whole quartier upended.Inspired by a true crime story of a serial killer who wreaked havoc on Paris in the summer of 1998, Cara Black's fourteenth Aimée Leduc mystery is a thrilling follow-up to her 2013 New York Times bestseller, Murder below Montparnasse.

Paris, February 1998: Aimee Leduc has her work cut out for her - running her detective agency and fighting off sleep deprivation as she tries to be a good single mother to her new babe. The last thing she has time for now is to take on a personal investigation for a poor manouche (French Gypsy) boy. But he insists his dying mother has an important secret she needs to tell Aimee, something to do with Aimee's father's unsolved murder a decade ago. How can she say no? The dying woman's secret is even more dangerous than her son realized. When Aimee arrives at the hospital, the boy's mother has disappeared. She was far too sick to leave on her own - she must have been abducted. What does she know that is so important it is worth killing for? And will Aimee be able to find her before it is too late and the medication keeping her alive runs out? Set in the seventh arrondissment, the quartier of the Parisian elite, Murder on the Champ de Mars takes us from the highest seats of power in the ministries and embassies through the city's private gardens and the homes of France's oldest aristocratic families. Aimee discovers more connections than she thought possible between the clandestine Gypsy world and the moneyed ancient regime, ultimately leading her to the truth behind her father's death. After all, for Aimee, murder is never far from home.

The world knows Aimee Leduc, heroine of 15 mysteries in this New York Times bestselling series, as a tres chic, no-nonsense private investigator-the toughest and most relentless in Paris. Now author Cara Black dips back in time to reveal how Aimee first became a detective… November 1989: Aimee Leduc is in her first year of college at Paris's preeminent medical school. She lives in a 17th-century apartment that overlooks the Seine with her father, who runs the family detective agency. But the week the Berlin Wall crumbles, so does Aimee's life as she knows it. First, someone has sabotaged her lab work, putting her at risk of failing out of the program. Then, she finds out her aristo boyfriend is planning to get engaged to another woman. And finally, Aimee's father takes off to Berlin on a mysterious errand. He asks Aimee to help out at the detective agency while he's gone-as if she doesn't already have enough to do. But the case Aimee finds herself investigating-a murder linked to a transport truck of Nazi gold that disappeared in the French countryside during the height of World War II-has gotten under her skin. Her heart may not lie in medicine after all-maybe it's time to think harder about the family business.

Paris, July 1999: Private investigator Aimee Leduc is walking through Saint-Germain when she is accosted by Suzanne Lesage, a Brigade Criminelle agent on an elite counterterrorism squad. Suzanne has just returned from the former Yugoslavia, where she was hunting down dangerous war criminals for the Hague. Back in Paris, Suzanne is convinced she's being stalked by a ghost-a Serbian warlord she thought she'd killed. She's suffering from PTSD and her boss thinks she's imagining things. She begs Aimee to investigate-is it possible Mirko Vladic could be alive and in Paris with a blood vendetta? Aimee is already working on a huge case, plus she's got an eight-month old baby to take care of. But she can't say no to Suzanne, whom she owes a big favor. Aimee chases the few leads, and all evidence confirms Mirko Vladic is dead. It seems that Suzanne is in fact paranoid, perhaps losing her mind-until Suzanne's team begins to turn up dead in a series of strange, tragic accidents. Are these just coincidences? Or are things not what they seem?

The eighteenth mystery in the New York Times bestselling Parisian detective series! A dying man drags his oxygen machine into the office of Eric Besson, a lawyer in Paris's 13th arrondissement. The old man, an accountant, is carrying a dilapidated notebook full of meticulous investment records. For decades, he has been helping a cadre of dirty cops launder stolen money. The notebook contains his full confession-he's waited 50 years to make it, and now it can't wait another day. He is adamant that Besson get the notebook into the hands of La Proc, Paris's chief prosecuting attorney, so the corruption can finally be brought to light. But en route to La Proc, Besson's courier-his assistant and nephew-is murdered, and the notebook disappears. Grief-stricken Eric Besson tries to hire private investigator Aimee Leduc to find the notebook, but she is reluctant to get involved. Her father was a cop and was murdered by the same dirty syndicate the notebook implicates. She's not sure which she's more afraid of, the dangerous men who would kill for the notebook or the idea that her father's name might be among the dirty cops listed within it. Ultimately that's the reason she must take the case, which leads her across the Left Bank, from the Cambodian enclave of Khmer Rouge refugees to the ancient royal tapestry factories to the modern art galleries.

Cara Black's riveting 19th installment in her New York Times bestselling Parisian detective series entangles private investigator Aimee Leduc in a dangerous web of international spycraft, post-colonial Franco-African politics, and neighborhood secrets in Paris's 12th arrondissement. Parisian private investigator Aimee Leduc is about to go onstage to deliver the keynote address at a tech conference that is sure to secure Leduc Detective some much-needed business contracts when she gets an emergency phone call from her daughter's playgroup: Aimee's own mother, who was supposed to pick Chloe up, never showed. Abandoning her hard-won speaking gig, Aimee rushes to get Chloe, annoyed that her mother has let her down yet again. But as Aimee and Chloe are leaving the playground, Aimee witnesses the body of a homeless woman being wheeled away from the neighboring convent, where nuns run a soup kitchen. The last person anyone saw the dead woman talking to was Aimee's mother, who has vanished. Trying to figure out what happened to Sydney Leduc, Aimee tracks down the dead woman's possessions, which include a huge amount of cash. What did Sydney stumble into? Is she in trouble?

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 and terrorist threats in Paris's 15th arrondissement. November, 2001: in the wake of 9/11, Paris is living in a state of fear, with constant bomb alerts and heightened ethnic tension. 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 with traces of explosive under his fingernails. 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 Téhéran-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.

Parisian private investigator Aimée Leduc has been framed for the murder of her daughter's father-now she's on the lam and must find the real killer to clear her name in this thrilling 21st installment of Cara Black's New York Times bestselling mystery series. Melac, Aimée Leduc's ex, has been hounding her for weeks, pressuring her to move little Chloé to Brittany, threatening to take her to court for custody-all but stalking her. Harassed and fed up, Aimée has stopped taking his calls. That's why she doesn't know as she's leaving a client's office late one night that Melac is waiting for her by the Bassin de la Villette-where an assailant attacks him just in time for Aimee to find his still-bleeding body in the canal. Interrupted, the killer knocks Aimée unconscious and plants the bloody knife in her hands for the police to find. Now Aimée is in police custody, debilitated by her concussion, with overwhelming evidence working against her. She has to figure out who murdered Melac-not an easy job, given the target on his back as a former homicide investigator. Cut off from her typical network and forced to operate under multiple layers of cover, Aimée must go deep into the underbelly of Paris's 19th arrondissement, where she rubs shoulders with biker gangs, paranoid journalists, grieving parents, and frustratingly tight-lipped ex-cops on her hunt for justice.