Murder on the Champ de Mars - Cara Black's 15th Aimee Leduc Mystery

You read that right.  This is Cara's 15th book in the series.  And #16 will be out in June of this year.  That is a crazy amount of books, period; let alone all in the same series.  And I have to make a confession right now - I read #1, Murder in the Marais, a few years ago. But I haven't read any since.  I admit to being a bit embarrassed by that.  And why did I decide to skip 2-14?  I'll tell you...I don't know.  But, fortunately, Cara is our RBC author for this month.  She's coming to Recycle Books next Tuesday, the 29th.  So I had to read it. And I'm really glad I did.  I can't say that I will read any of the older ones.  But I will definitely be reading #16 in a few months, and all subsequent Cara Black books.

For those of you who don't know, the protagonist in this series is Aimee Leduc.  She is a private investigator in Paris.  The blurb for this specific book is not really that important.  But Aimee is definitely a well-developed character.  With her partner, Rene, who is a little person, they (not surprisingly) solve crimes.

It's interesting that I connected with Aimee right away, even though I missed 13 books.  It doesn't hurt that Aimee has a baby that provides a certain amount of humor ("With her fingernail she scraped off the splattered souvenir her six-month old daughter, Chloe, had left on her clutch.") and poignancy.  And Cara definitely knows how to bring tears and laughter to her reading audience.

She mixes in a lot of French words in her story.  Since I took 4 quarters of French in college, it's kind of fun to see these words and pronounce them in my mind.  Speaking of France (was I?), there is a scene that takes place in the garden of the Rodin Musee.  I was there!  That was very cool to relate to a specific attraction in Paris (not counting the Eiffel Tower or the Seine).  She also gives us a great quote from Oscar Wilde:  "Be yourself; everyone else is already taken."

Finally, late in the book, I was completely caught of guard by a scene in which I got chills, cried a bunch, and exhaled mightily at the end.  I love getting caught up in a story like that.

RANDOM NOTES:
1.  I will be seeing Harlan Coben this Friday night at Book Passage in Corte Madera.  It's the 4th time I've seen him in person and still can't wait!
2.  Got my ARC of Redemption Road from John Hart's publisher yesterday and started it today.  No surprise that it starts out great.  But, more importantly, John is someone that actually responds to his readers.  I told him that I would see him at Book Passage on June 4 and asked him if he could get me an ARC.  He said yes and got it sent right away.  Nice.
3.  I'm sorry to report that BookBuyers on Castro Street in Mt. View has lost its lease. They're looking for a new spot but not having much success so far.  I will keep you up-to-date.