Murder in Pigalle

Set amid the madness of the 1998 World Cup final, Black’s well-crafted 14th Aimée Leduc investigation (after 2013’s Murder Below Montparnasse) finds the Parisian PI, who’s five-months pregnant, ready to take a break and ponder her future as a single mom. Aimée has reduced her workload, taking mostly cases involving cybercrime, but the disappearance of 13-year-old Zazie Duclos, the daughter of good friends and an Aimée wannabe, snaps her back into active investigator mode. Further complicating the disappearance—in addition to World Cup fever and a daring heist—is a string of recent rapes by a serial pedophile that the police appear to have put on the back burner. Despite her pregnancy, Aimée throws her whole self into the mix, risking life and limb to rescue the girl. A strong sense of place and a deliciously twisted plot more than compensate for some stilted dialogue. Agent: Katherine Fausset, Curtis Brown. (Mar.)