from author’s website
Cara Black is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of 20 books in the Private Investigator Aimée Leduc series, and two World War II-set novels featuring American markswoman Kate Rees. Cara has received multiple nominations for the Anthony and Macavity Awards, a Washington Post Book World Book of the Year citation, the Médaille de la Ville de Paris—the Paris City Medal, which is awarded in recognition of contribution to international culture—and invitations to be the Guest of Honor at conferences such as the Paris Polar Crime Festival and Left Coast Crime. With more than 400,000 books in print, the Aimée Leduc series has been translated into German, Norwegian, Japanese, French, Spanish, Italian, and Hebrew.
Cara was born in Chicago but has lived in California’s Bay Area since she was five years old. Before turning to writing full-time, she tried her hand at a number of jobs: she was a barista in the Basel train station café in Switzerland, taught English in Japan, studied Buddhism in Dharamsala in Northern India, and worked as a bar girl in Bangkok (only pouring drinks!). After studying Chinese history at Sophia University in Tokyo—where she met her husband, Jun, a bookseller, potter, and amateur chef—she obtained her teaching credential at San Francisco State College, and went on to work as a preschool director and then as an agent of the federally funded Head Start program, which sent her into San Francisco’s Chinatown to help families there—often sweatshop workers—secure early care and early education for their children. Each of these jobs was amazing and educational in a different way, and the Aimée Leduc books are covered in fingerprints of Cara’s various experiences.
Her love of all things French was kindled by the French-speaking nuns at her Catholic high school, where Cara first encountered French literature and went crazy for the work of Prix Goncourt winner Romain Gary. Her junior year in high school, she wrote him a fan letter—which he answered, and which inspired her to make her first trip to Paris, where her idol took her out for coffee and a cigar. Since then, she has been to Paris many, many times. On each visit she entrenches herself in a different part of the city, learning its secret history. She has posed as a journalist to sneak into closed areas, trained at a firing range with real Paris flics, gotten locked in a bathroom at the Victor Hugo museum, and—just like Aimée—gone down into the sewers with the rats (she can never pass up an opportunity to see something new, even when the timing isn’t ideal—she was headed to a fancy dinner right afterwards and had a spot of bother with her shoes). For the scoop on real Paris crime, she takes the flics out for drinks and dinner to hear their stories—but it usually turns into a long evening, which is why she sticks with espresso.
ABOUT MURDER AT LA VILLETTE:
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.
Aimée Leduc doesn’t know that her life is about to be upended. Her ex, Melac, has been hounding her to move their daughter, Chloé, to Brittany. Aimée is fed up with his threats to take her to court and has stopped answering his calls. Which is why she doesn’t know he’s waiting for her by the Bassin de la Villette as she leaves a client’s office late one night. When she finds him there, bleeding in the canal, he has just been stabbed by an assailant, who knocks Aimée unconscious and plants the bloody knife in her hands.
Now Aimée is in police custody, debilitated by a concussion, with overwhelming evidence pointing to her as Melac’s killer. She must 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.
Available March 5, 2024. Order your copy here.
PRAISE AND RECOGNITION FOR MURDER AT LA VILLETTE:
“Black shrewdly ups the stakes in the pulse-pounding 21st mystery featuring French PI Aimée Leduc . . . Black maintains expert suspense and keeps things fresh by separating the investigator from her typical allies. This will thrill series fans and newcomers alike.”—Publishers Weekly, Starred Review
“Features the requisite host of colorful characters who spill out of the biker bars and tattoo parlors of the 19th arrondissement, a bevy of chic disguises, and a few slick car chases. But as usual, the star of the show is the city Aimée loves. Vintage Black for fans of women’s empowerment and life in Paris.”—Kirkus Reviews
“The pace is relentless, and the plot thickens with each chapter. An odd assortment of crooked cops, biker gangs, drug dealers, grieving parents, and even a WWII Nazi keep the challenges and the clues coming. Best read with a café au lait in hand.”—Booklist
Praise for the New York Times bestselling Aimée Leduc series
“The finest PI series now being written.”—Mick Herron, author of Slow Horses
“Black offers armchair travelers a whirlwind trip through the City of Light.”—USA Today
“Black’s chatty style quickly transports the reader to the banks of the River Seine, and Leduc, as always, is an engaging heroine.”—Financial Times
“Marvelous . . . Boasts all of Black’s trademark charms, including deft plotting, sharp dialog and colorful sights and sounds.”—Chicago Tribune
“Black creates rich, plausible characters, giving them individuality and depth.”—San Francisco Gate
“Cara Black’s Aimée Leduc is a gem: a stylish, brave private detective (and new mom) who zips around Paris on a scooter . . . Beguiling tours of some of Paris’ little-known corners.” —The Seattle Times
“Chic and utterly charming.”—The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
AUTHOR VISITS:
Author visits with Cara Black are available via NovelNetwork.com.