Murder in Saint-Germain

Set in the sizzling summer of 1999, Black’s twisty 17th Aimée Leduc investigation (after 2016’s Murder on the Quai) finds the Parisian PI doing a job for the École des Beaux-Arts, the kind of computer security work that pays the bills for her agency, Leduc Detective. Then old acquaintance and counterterrorism operative Suzanne Lesage asks Aimée to find a Serbian warlord, who was presumed dead but who, Suzanne insists, is alive and following her. This case presents the kind of danger that Aimée hoped she left behind with the birth of her daughter, Chloé, eight months before, but she agrees to help. Meanwhile, she’s wracked with guilt after a shooter seriously wounds her godfather, Morbier, and she doesn’t completely trust Chloé’s biological father, Malec, who has turned up, seeking to spend time with the baby. Black juggles numerous plot lines with panache and brings to life the charm and grit of Paris. A few nods to old-fashioned capers (Aimée keeps a whole wardrobe of disguises) enhance a mystery as sharp as Aimée’s designer stiletto heels. [em]Agent: Katherine Fausset, Curtis Brown. (June) [/em]