Murder in Passy (Cara Black)

Can't believe I'm already reviewing the next installment in the Aimee Leduc series! But yes, I made sure I put myself on the waiting list at the library as soon as they uploaded the record for this book. The action in this story takes place about a month or two after the end of the last book, Murder in the Palais Royal (my very first book review here!).

This time around Aimee becomes involved in a murder mystery that hits almost as close to home as the murder of her fiance, Yves (Murder in the Rue de Paradis). Morbier, her godfather, asks her to check up on his girlfriend, Xavierre. Turns out Xavierre had some involvement with ETA, the Basque terrorist group that operates in Spain and France. This involvement costs Xavierre her life and Morbier comes out as the main suspect. Alas, things aren't complicated enough in this scenario for Black's pleasure. Nope, we have to have Morbier involved in an investigation into corruption inside the police department itself. This makes his situation even more precarious.

And Aimee's possible new man, Melac, the police detective that we first meet in Palais Royal shows up again. He's not Aimee's typical bad boy, but he's no shrinking violet. Considering that she has slept with a murderer before, it's not out of the question that Melac might be involved with the corrupt flics Morbier is investigating.

All of the telltale features of the series appears. Aimee steps on dog poop wearing Louboutin heels, she runs around wearing designer clothes and complains about having gained a kilo. (That's about 1.6 pounds, by the way.) Her partner, Rene, doesn't show up as much in this book as in previous ones. I'm hoping that we get to see more about what's going on in his personal life. He seems to have met someone and I do hope that works out. You can't help but want Rene to find some happiness.

So another good story from Ms. Black. I hope she doesn't kill Melac off or worse. It can come in handy for Aimee to have a flic on her side.

Next up: The Distant Hours, by Kate Morton. I've been trying to fit this one into my schedule for a while. I really enjoyed Morton's first two books, The House at Riverton and The Forgotten Garden. Hope she can keep up the good work!