by Cara Black
Part of Aimee Leduc Investigations, book 19
First published 2019
Aimée Leduc prepares to deliver a keynote speech at a tech conference when an urgent call disrupts everything. Her infant daughter Chloe sits abandoned at playgroup because Aimée's mother Sydney never arrived to collect her. Aimée abandons her crucial business opportunity and races to retrieve Chloe. At the playground, she watches paramedics remove a homeless woman's body from the adjacent convent where nuns operate a soup kitchen. Sydney was the last person seen speaking with the deceased woman before disappearing completely. Aimée discovers the dead woman possessed a surprising amount of cash, raising disturbing questions about what Sydney encountered. Now Aimée must navigate dangerous territory involving international espionage, Franco-African political tensions, and resistance movements while searching Paris's tech-focused 12th arrondissement for answers. Her investigation pulls her deeper into neighborhood secrets and post-colonial conflicts that threaten both her family and her detective agency. The case forces Aimée to confront her complicated relationship with her unreliable mother while racing to find Sydney before whatever drove her into hiding claims another victim.
Genres: suspense, mystery, crime, thriller
Vibes: fast-paced, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-family, unreliable-narrator
Setting: Bel-Air, Paris, 12th Arrondissement
Period: Contemporary
312 pages · Hardcover · Soho Crime
Content warnings: violence