by Cara Black
Part of Aimee Leduc Investigations, book 20
First published 2022
Paris trembles under bomb alerts in November 2001. Private investigator Aimée Leduc prepares to celebrate her daughter Chloe's third birthday on the same day that marks her father's death. The gathering shatters when an explosion rocks the police laboratory. Boris Viard, partner of Aimée's friend Michou, lies unconscious at the blast site with his fingerprints on bomb debris. The police arrest Boris, but Aimée refuses to believe he planted the device. She fights both law enforcement and Boris's colleagues to gather witness statements that contradict each other. French intelligence recruits Aimée to explore connections between the bombing and Iranian Revolutionary Guard operatives who attacked Interpol decades earlier. Her investigation through the Iranian quarter reveals links to one of her father's unsolved cases. As Aimée searches for truth in the streets of Teheran-sur-Seine, Chloe's biological father pressures her to abandon Paris for his Brittany farm. The twentieth book in Cara Black's bestselling series pulls Aimée into postcolonial politics and international espionage while she weighs whether she could ever leave the city that defines her.
Genres: mystery, crime, thriller, espionage
Vibes: fast-paced, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: amateur-sleuth, international-espionage
Setting: Paris, Versailles, Teheran-sur-Seine, Brittany
Period: November 2001
360 pages · Hardcover · Soho Crime
Content warnings: violence