Murder Below Montparnasse
Cara Black
ISBN: 9781616952150
Published: March, 2013
Pricing
Paperback $14.95
More books by Cara Black
Description
The cobbled streets of Montparnasse might have been boho-chic in the 1920s, when artists, writers, and their muses drank absinthe and danced on the café tables. But to Parisian private investigator Aimée Leduc, these streets hold darker secrets. When an old Russian man named Yuri hires Aimée to protect a painting that just might be a M...
The cobbled streets of Montparnasse might have been boho-chic in the 1920s, when artists, writers, and their muses drank absinthe and danced on the café tables. But to Parisian private investigator Aimée Leduc, these streets hold darker secrets. When an old Russian man named Yuri hires Aimée to protect a painting that just might be a Modigliani, she learns how deadly art theft can be. Yuri is found tortured to death in his atelier, and the painting is missing. Every time Aimée thinks she’s found a new witness, the body count rises. What exactly is so special about this painting that so many people are willing to kill — and die — for it?
Media
“Francophiles and mystery-novel lovers alike will devour investigator Aimée Leduc's latest outing, which takes her through the gorgeous if treacherous world of black-market art in Paris, as she safeguards a long-lost Modigliani painting.”
—Entertainment Weekly
“As always, with airfares so high, Black offers armchair travelers a whirlwind trip through the City of Light. ”
—Carol Memmott, USA Today
“Aimée Leduc, the appealing sleuth in this series...is always zipping around on her pink Vespa, carrying out some "quick and dirty" computer security job. But she keeps up a running commentary on whatever quartier of the city her work takes her to. Here it's the unfashionable backside of Montparnasse.... This unassuming neighborhood is a rich one for the purposes of a plot that hangs on a Modigliani canvas and involves Russian émigrés and Surrealist artists, including some who live on in legend. ”
—Marilyn Stasio, The New York Times Book Review
“[Black's] tone is lighter than in most other Euro-noir. After all, this is Paris....The spice in this tale, set in 1998, involves a long-hidden, newly stolen Modigliani that Leduc is hired to retrieve. Before she can even begin hunting, her client is killed.... Fortunately, Leduc has a network of loyal friends to aid in her escapades. Pity the knife-wielding villain who offends that infallible sense of style.”
—Tom Nolan, The Wall Street Journal
“A breathless tale of double-, triple- and quadruple-crosses as the private eye finds herself at the heart of a century-old plot that incorporates not only the great painters of the avant garde but also one Vladimir Illyich Lenin. ”