Review by New York Times Review
Is there a British politician alive who won't quake in his hand-sewn boots to read THE BIRTHDAY PRESENT (Shaye Areheart, $25)? A typically cruel and subtle piece of work by Ruth Rendell, writing under her Barbara Vine pseudonym, the novel charts the calamitous career trajectory of a Conservative member of Parliament when he tries to evade the consequences of a sexual misadventure that results in two deaths, including that of his married lover. Although we're reminded that "all political parties have their sleaziness," the story might be read as a cautionary fable for a particularly tense time, perhaps subtitled "How the Tories Shot Themselves in the Foot in the 1994 Elections." From the moment Ivor Tesham chooses not to admit his role in the kidnapping of Hebe Furnal, he becomes a prime candidate for blackmail. But coming clean would mean acknowledging Hebe as his mistress and explaining how she happened to be trussed up in a car that crashed into a 40-ton truck, killing her and one of her kidnappers and leaving the other seriously injured. Much better to let the police think Hebe had been mistaken for a rich man's trophy wife than confess that the ''abduction" was actually a kinky birthday present for Ivor's sexually adventurous paramour. Blackmail would indeed seem to be in order, but Vine is much too cunning to engage in that generic vulgarism. Ivor contemplates his fate with more anxiety than guilt; the cross he bears isn't remorse but uncertainty about who might have guessed his secret. Given the strain he's under, it's a good thing he doesn't know what Hebe's creepy best friend - who shares the role of narrator with Ivor's more sympathetic brother-in-law - is up to. "To understand Ivor you have first to accept him as the quintessential English gentleman," says his understanding relative, who goes on to enumerate the many virtues that mitigate Ivor's reckless behavior and callous disregard for others. "But he has a weakness," we're told. "He is very afraid of ridicule." Ivor can't avoid becoming ridiculous; but because Vine leaves out nothing in portraying him, he remains likable - never admirable, but likable. In the end, it's circumstance, not conscience, that trips him up, as the damage to people whose existence he barely acknowledges piles up and overwhelms him. When all is seemingly settled, only the reader has grasped the enormity of the fallout from his selfishness. Walter Mosley swears he's through with Easy Rawlins, the appealing hero of his Los Angeles series set in the middle of the last century. In THE LONG FALL (Riverhead, $25.95), he introduces us to Leonid McGill, who lives in present-day New York and is an entirely different kind of guy. An ex-boxer and onetime fixer for mobsters, McGill has set up as a private eye and is trying to make amends for his past - which proves difficult when someone starts killing off the men he recently located for a paying client. While nowhere near as charming as Rawlins, McGill is easy to like, given the character-building temptations that come his way as he tries to be an honest investigator and a good family man. What's weird is that the book doesn't feel as if it's set in today's New York. Were it not for the occasional jarring reference, like the "gap" in the skyline left by the World Trade Center, we might be in the New York of the 1950s, which is where McGill's soul seems to reside. The man drives a 1957 Pontiac, speaks of "mooks" and "mutts," and gravitates to places that are either anachronistic (seedy Gordo's Gym) or beyond time (Coney Island). Happily, the terrific characters he meets in these off-the-grid places speak the same dated lingo and are caught in the same time warp. All things considered, McGill is someone you can definitely settle down with. Let's not analyze why we love women who cut up dead bodies. Let's just enjoy GRAVE GOODS (Putnam, $25.95), the third adventure in Ariana Franklin's dynamic series of novels featuring Adelia Aguilar, the free-thinking "mistress of the art of death" whose practice of forensic pathology makes her a witch in 12th-century England, but a favorite of the enlightened King Henry II. The king's motives are entirely political when he summons this "extraordinary and dangerous woman" to Glastonbury Abbey to examine two skeletons said to be the remains of King Arthur and Queen Guinevere. "You need Arthur to be dead," Adelia says, appreciating the impact of this news on the rebellious Celtic tribes who await the return of their legendary king. Science and romance vie with superstition and barbarism in this richly detailed, almost indecently thrilling mystery. The ninth mystery in Cara Black's irresistible series set in Paris is unlikely to have a more coherent plot than its predecessors. But, let's admit it, the city's 20 arrondissements aren't equally interesting, and MURDER IN THE LATIN QUARTER (Soho, $24) might well be the book we've been waiting for. Aimée Leduc, Black's adorably punkish sleuth, is in her element in this youthful setting, the intellectual heart of the city, with its schools, museums, bookstores and student haunts. But its narrow streets are also home to Haitian nationals, like the professor who has been ritualistically murdered in his rooms above the Ostéologique Anatomie Comparée. Luckily, Aimée has her battered pink Vespa for zipping around the quartier in pursuit of the killer, who leads her on a mad chase up alleys and down catacombs in one of this colorful series's most scenic itineraries. Ruth Rendell (alias Barbara Vine) reminds us that 'all political parties have their sleaziness.'
Copyright (c) The New York Times Company [October 27, 2009]
Review by Booklist Review
Black returns to two of her favorite themes in this latest Aimée Leduc novel: immigrants in Paris and the family history of her heroine. As usual, Aimée, a computer-security analyst forever entangled in murder investigations, finds herself balancing paying clients against freelance sleuthing, and this time the mystery involves a Haitian woman who claims to be Aimée's sister. Is Mireille really the offspring of a long-ago liaison between Aimée's late father and a Haitian woman, or is she somehow part of a scam connected to Paris' Haitian community? The body count grows as Aimée follows the trail through the Latin Quarter and the Sorbonne to what may be an international scandal involving aid to Haiti. Black's ability to combine the landscape of Parisian neighborhoods with the intricate politics of the city's many immigrant communities is what gives this series its appeal, despite the somewhat formulaic plot structure. Aimée's ongoing search for her father's murderer and any trace of her vanished mother adds depth to the stories, and that family angle is heightened here with the possibility of a sibling. A solid outing in a dependable series.--Ott, Bill Copyright 2008 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Two weeks after Princess Diana's death in Paris in 1997, an illegal Haitian immigrant named Mireille walks into Aimee Leduc's office, claiming that Aimee's late father was also her father. Before Aimee can learn more, Mireille disappears, leaving only a cryptic note with an address in the Latin Quarter, the setting for Black's twisty ninth Aimee Leduc investigation (after 2008's Murder in the Rue de Paradis). At the address, an old building housing a comparative anatomy research facility, Aimee finds the corpse of a well-dressed black man with his ear cut off. The complex plot, which involves Haitian politics, history and culture as well as world trade and geopolitical corruption (not to mention Aimee's quest to discover if Mireille is really her half-sister), at times threatens to overwhelm the book. Still, Black creates an indelible portrait of a Parisian neighborhood as she explores how the past continues to collide with the present, with unpredictable and far-reaching results. (Mar.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
Aimee Leduc is waiting for an important client when a Haitian woman enters and announces that she is Aimee's half-sister. Quel choc! Aimee agrees to meet her at a cafe but misses her, then follows a trail that leads to a dead man surrounded by a circle of salt. And so Black launches Aimee's ninth mystery (Murder in the Rue de Paradis), and it's every bit as good as the preceding eight. Like its predecessors, this work is infused with both sharp political/historical commentary and a strong sense of Aimee's messy but affecting emotional life. Even as she uncovers what happened to the murdered man-his work, relevant to a French water project and the parlous state of Haiti's water supply, interests both Madame Obin of the Haitian trade delegation and her radically opposed nephew-Aimee opens up in her typically heartfelt way to the idea of having a sibling, evidently born of a liaison her father once had with a woman who subsequently returned home to Haiti. Is Mireille really Aimee's sister? Perhaps. To save her life, will Aimee crawl through the worst tunnels under Paris? Mais, bien s r. Another pitch-perfect read from Black; highly recommended. [See Prepub Mystery, LJ 11/1/08.]-Barbara Hoffert, Library Journal (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
Postcolonial politics and global commerce ignite the murder of a Haitian academic in Paris's bohemian Left Bank. Still recovering from the death of her fianc (Murder in the Rue de Paradis, 2008), Aime Leduc wants nothing more than to help partner Ren Friant land a fat contract for Leduc Detective to handle Arospatiale's computer security. But she's distracted by Mireille, an illegal immigrant from Haiti who claims to be Aime's half sister, born of a liaison between Jean-Claude Leduc and her mother, Edwige, more than a year before Edwige's murder by Duvalier's tonton macoutes. A note from Mireille leads to Professor Azacca Benot's office in the Latin Quarter's Ecole Normale Suprieure, where Aime finds his body, minus an ear, inside a circle of salt. His file has disappeareda file sought with equal urgency by Madame Lonie Obin of the Haitian trade delegation and her radical nephew Edouard, who stand on opposite sides in Haiti's negotiations with Hydrolis, their French water supplier. Aime's search for Mireille becomes all the more pressing when Darquin, the night watchman at Benot's Osteologique Anatomie Compare lab, is pushed to his death into traffic, and Huby, Benoit's research assistant, is thrown from a window, leaving Aime frantic at the thought of losing the sister she never knew she had. Black at her peak, with rich historical background and a vivid sense of place supporting her compelling narrative. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
