But Who Is She? a guest post by Cara Black

 LUCY BURDETTE: Reds, I’m delighted to welcome our long-time friend Cara Black back to the blog. You probably know her as the author of 21 bestselling Aimee Leduc mysteries set in Paris, but she’s here to introduce something new. You know I will always follow her to Paris...Welcome Cara!

CARA BLACK: 

Bienvenue, Reds and readers, to Huguette! 

But who is she?

Unlike most of my stories, which begin with a “What if . . .?” Huguette began with a “Who is she?” 

I referred to the mistress of Aimée’s treasured grandfather Claude in several of my Aimée Leduc books set in Paris. he always remained a cipher, making me wonder—who is this woman? Granted, she was only a small detail within the Aiméeverse. Aimée herself wasn’t even born when this novel takes place. If you haven’t read the Aimée Leduc series, no worries, this story stands alone.

Huguette’s life reflects the reality of existence  in postwar France, a little-addressed subject in fiction, though very real and within living memory. This time fascinated me. I knew there had to be more than just what is seen in Libération–era photos of GIs kissing French girls on the Champs-Élysées, popping Champagne, and handing out chocolate. That, combined with the stories I heard about the French cinema from a friend’s mother, spurred me to explore this era. The more I researched, the more I wanted to understand what it would feel like if I wasn’t one of the lucky wearing Dior’s new look in 1947. If, facing rationing, power cuts, and equipment shortages in postwar France, I had to fight to survive. 

That brought me to the character of Huguette. An orphaned young woman struggling with the odds stacked against her—and forced to make tough moral choices for the sake of her own survival. Once I had answered the question “Who is she?” I could pursue “What is her story?” and finally, “What if . . . ?”

Though many of Huguette’s circumstances are specific to the times she lives in, I’ve faced plenty of struggles and hard decisions of my own. Difficult choices when it seems like one can’t win for losing. Maybe you can relate to this, Huguette’s journey and resilience may resonate with you. 

Have you experienced a dilemma and knew the outcome would be life changing? And in so doing find an inner strength? 

Let me know.

Cara Black is the author of twenty-one books in the New York Times bestselling Aimée Leduc series as well as the WWII thrillers Three Hours in Paris and Night Flight to Paris. She has won the Médaille de la Ville de Paris and the Médaille d’Or du Rayonnement Culturel and received multiple nominations for the Anthony and Macavity Awards; her books have been translated into German, Norwegian, Japanese, French, Spanish, Italian, and Hebrew. Her latest book HUGUETTE, a novel of Libération comes out in December.

A Bitter-Sweet Ending for Cara Black

RHYS BOWEN: This is a good week. I have dear friends with new books out, visiting us on Jungle Reds, and starting with one of my closest friends, Cara Black. Cara and I have had a book launch around the same time for many years and have previously toured together ( lots of fun, some strange adventures).

 Now I'm in Arizona and Cara is goodness knows where today, off on a book tour all over the country. But I was lucky enough to snag her before she set off and ask her to share details of the latest, and last in her beloved Parisian series.

CARA BLACK: Bonjour REDS! Rhys was recently over for lunch and reminded to get my post ready for you all. It’s a bit of a bittersweet one since it’s about my new Aimée Leduc book, MURDER AT LA VILLETTE, which is just out. Bittersweet, I’ll explain but first it’s exciting, too. 

Thrilling to bring readers to the 19th arrondissement, the underbelly of Paris on the canal. While working undercover in a start-up funded by the local 19th arrondissement initiative, Aimée Leduc, a computer security specialist PI, is unhappy at the toxic staff environment + treatment of local employees. Especially, Isabelle, a cleaner and former junkie, who’s gone clean in a program along with Aimée’s cousin, Sébastien, and who supports her brother disabled with muscular dystrophy. Aimée’s ex, Melac, formerly in the anti-terrorist brigade, and bio father of her 3 year old daughter Chloé, is insisting they move to Brittany and live on his farm. 

That train left a long time ago - Conflicted, she knows fresh farm life, sea air and nature would be wonderful for her child but stuck on a farm for how long? Aimée, a Parisienne, needs a cafe at the corner and Chloé’s in preschool, but is that being a good mom? As if this wasn’t tugging on her mind, Aimée’s in a new relationship with Loic Bellan. Juggling her undercover job, her detective agency with her partner René, being a mother, trying to maintain her relationship with Bellan is stressful enough without Melac hounding her to meet him and consider shared custody in Brittany. Melac, who's been stalking her, insists they meet after her work. When he leaves a cryptic message that ‘he’s just seen a ghost’ she knows that’s unlike him. Concerned, she looks for him by the canal where he usually waits/stalks her after work figuring to deal with this once and for all - she’s not sharing custody with Melac or moving to Brittany. 

What she discovers upends her life as events take a disastrous turn. Aimée realizes she’s been set up as a suspect in murder. She goes on the run, in a cat and mouse chase, donning disguises in the 19th arrondissement of Paris Up to her neck, Aimée realises she must take help where she can. If she doesn’t find the murderer she’ll face the consequences - lose her daughter, business, everything. Convinced she’s been set up she’s afraid to lose her daughter, never see her again. 

People often ask me why I write mysteries and thrillers, and I know the Reds and Readers will have their reasons, which I'd love to hear. I came up with three reasons: -

1st- There’s a real crime that intrigues me. Sometimes I read about this, a French flic tells me about one of her/his cases, or a miscarriage of justice happening to a friend. In M at LV - this was inspired by a serial killer who’d eluded the police for 30 yrs despite his composite sketch being on the Commissariat wall - his identity was in the papers the day I walked this street with my friend a policeman, where his first victim was discovered, a young girl. Echos of past in the community, weight of history, reverberations of crime thru generations. 

This idea leads me into ‘what would I do, if that were me?’ ‘would I be able to survive?’ and ‘what if…’ being curious + asking questions. I feel it’s important to show why historical crime fiction matters, and hopefully in 3 Hours, Night Flight I found ways how to breathe life into forgotten moments, lost voices, little told women’s stories and the timeless human experience and now, in small ways, in Aimée’s investigation in the 19th. -

2nd-I like that there’s a fight for justice, a wrong to be righted, a form of justice triumphs in a mystery that doesn’t often happen in life, it’s a resolution - but not every bow gets tied. I like mysteries and thrillers with high stakes - if character doesn’t solve the crime someone could die, or in a thriller; can a character get loose, escape? Can they accomplish their mission? In Aimée’s case she has no choice. If she doesn’t find the killer she faces prison + losing her child. Her life ruined. The killer gets away to strike again. -3rd-I like learning about forensics and police procedures in Paris, how the canal system works, going in the sewers to know how it feels, going on the rooftops, meeting detectives and seeing if female flics can run in heels. Finding the ambiance of this area. Research for this book took me to parts off the beaten track. Emigres have settled here over the centuries, it’s residential, formerly industrial because of it’s location on the canal. 

Working people can still afford to raise a family there. Ethnically and culturally it’s diverse, a large Orthodox Jewish population, those of North Africans and Arab descent, In the 1900’s Germans settled and established a church. There’s Résistance history - a female chemist who made bombs, the attack on the petit ceinture as Germans retreated, my friend’s father who was arrested outside the police station and sent to Struthof-Natzweiller camp. Charming pockets and feel of old Paris, how a cafe owner knew my friend and told stories, and so many memories held here. 

Right now, I know I’ve done more than what I dreamed possible in Paris and solving crime in all the arrondissements. Actually I goofed and set two books in one arrondissement, so there’s now 21. It’s defined my life for 25 years. Financed my Paris addiction. I’ve always gone to Paris feeling like a reporter hunting for Aimée’s next story

The Aimée Leduc mysteries have been the framework of my world and my family’s and now you might be wondering what might come next for me, but all I can say at this point is “Watch this space.” I don’t know if there will another story to tell or where it would happen. I don’t know if this is Aimée’s last bow, the closing novel in the series. For now I’ve written another book which is at my editor’s - of course set in France. 

Where should I go next? Somewhere else in France? What time period? I'll be giving away a signed copy of Murder at La Villette to the suggestion I like the best! 

I'm on tour right now ,so maybe I'll come to your neck of the woods.

Merci for having me, Reds and love to hear your thoughts! Cara http://www.carablack.com

RHYS: Where should Cara go next? She will be giving away a signed copy of the LAST Aimee LeDuc book! Add your comments to be included.

Cara Black---Night Flight to Paris

DEBORAH CROMBIE: It is always such a treat for us to have Cara Black visit on Jungle Red--we fight over who gets to host her! And I'm thrilled to see Kate Rees, Cara's WWII sharpshooter heroine from THREE HOURS IN PARIS, back in her new novel, NIGHT FLIGHT TO PARIS. Just the title gives me goosebumps! Here's Cara to take us on a little virtual adventure!

 

—— Bonjour Reds,

    Thanks for inviting me, Debs. It’s great to visit all you Jungle Reds again. In my story, NIGHT FLIGHT TO PARIS, I explore friendships, especially between women. Who can you rely on and who can you trust when you’re not supposed to trust anyone. And during wartime when your life depends on it?

    Kate Rees, an Oregonian born on a backwoods ranch during the Depression, was raised using a rifle to protect the ranch and hunt game. We’ve met her in the preceding book, THREE HOURS IN PARIS. She’s got a bit of Annie Oakley in her and descends from frontier women. So Kate, now a young widow with sharpshooting skills, finds herself stranded in WW2 Britain. When the British intelligence service discovers this - what better skill to use against the enemy, the Germans, and avenge her family?

    I love research. For me it involves visiting the Spy Museum in Washington, DC to see historical spy gadgets, consulting the French archives and collections of the Imperial War museum in London. And going to Paris! The best part of my job! Debs, I think you might agree with there about going to research in London, right?

    Walking the ground of these cities and places is research for me - it’s about capturing the play of light, the nuances and being in actual places where history/the war happened. To feel the past on a cobbled street in Paris, sites of the Blitz. Visiting Churchill’s war rooms in London was like walking into another time. I could almost touch history at the battle sites and memorials in North Africa. So the challenge is while I visit the places I write about in NIGHT FLIGHT TO PARIS: crawled in the tunnels and Catacombs under Paris, toured the Hotel Lutetia in Paris where the German Abwehr - military intelligence - was headquartered - and walked the Cairo streets, I didn’t go there in 1942. I wish I could time travel. Any writer faces this challenge writing historical fiction and we - at least I do - draw on shared universal experiences. Do my best to evoke another time and place bringing in sensory details.

    I got stranded once in Cairo - robbed in the train station which left me broke. Long story but with a surprisingly happy ending and a good Egyptian friend I have to this day. However, this sense of being stranded in a foreign country where I couldn’t speak the language or even read streets signs brought me to where Kate Rees, my protagonist might be. Her fear. The alienation and otherness she would feel, the myriad difficulties she’d encounter with no one she could trust. Her senses on overload from a place exotic and foreign to her as it was to me.

    My eyes were opened reading the accounts, memoirs and archived letters of young women who worked in the WW2 British Signals division. Amazing heroic stuff and so little known. Only now are various intelligence documents being de-classified and available for research. After eighty years! Many records were ‘lost’ and destroyed so we’ll never know. I consulted files about the listening devices recording captured German POW’s and high ranking military. At one point the POW’s - elite German military - were held in the Tower of London - it was bugged to hear what they were saying. You can’t make this stuff up!   

 

    I grew up watching old WW2 documentaries - black and white ones and Victory at Sea - since they were always on and I later found out members of my family had served. My mother’s cousin  - my second cousin had served in Italy and rarely spoke of it. But the more I learned after he passed, made me curious about this theatre of war. And what I never saw in the documentaries was women’s role in the war. Women were behind the scenes but very much a strategical component.

    Researching woman’s roles during that time I discovered the Russian army had a unit of female sharpshooters/snipers who plagued the German army. Lyudmila Pavlichenko, a battle-tested and highly decorated lieutenant in the Red Army’s 25th Rifle Division, visited the US at Eleanor Roosevelt’s invitation in 1942 and toured the White House.

It surprised me when I did research that the US didn’t follow suit. But women then weren’t allowed in combat. Also, female sharpshooters weren’t allowed in the Olympics until 1970’s games in Mexico City. What an underutilised resource!

      I like secrets. We all have them. Hidden lives intrigue me. Hiding in plain sight. Espionage involves facades shown to the world and different on the inside.  What better place or time for this than with the high stakes in WW2? Kate’s descended from pioneer women, grew up on an Oregon ranch with five brothers and developed grit, resilience and is driven after losing her family. It’s tough to know what I can throw at her next but the war’s not over :)

Wishing you happy reading! Cara

www.carablack.com

It is once again up to American markswoman Kate Rees to take the shot that just might win—or lose—World War II, in the followup to national bestseller Three Hours in Paris.

Three missions. Two cities. One shot to win the war.

October 1942: it’s been two years since Kate Rees was sent to Paris on a British Secret Service mission to assassinate Hitler. Since then, she has left spycraft behind to take a training job as a sharpshooting instructor in the Scottish Highlands. But her quiet life is violently disrupted when Colonel Stepney, her former handler, drags her back into the fray for a risky three-pronged mission in Paris.

Each task is more dangerous than the next: Deliver a package of forbidden biological material. Assassinate a high-ranking German operative whose knowledge of invasion plans could turn the tide of the war against the Allies. Rescue a British agent who once saved Kate’s life—and get out.

Kate will encounter sheiks and spies, poets and partisans, as she races to keep up with the constantly shifting nature of her assignment, showing every ounce of her Oregonian grit in the process.

 Cara Black is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of 20 books in the Private Investigator Aimée Leduc series, and two World War II-set novels featuring American markswoman Kate Rees. Cara has received multiple nominations for the Anthony and Macavity Awards, a Washington Post Book World Book of the Year citation, the Médaille de la Ville de Paris—the Paris City Medal, which is awarded in recognition of contribution to international culture—and invitations to be the Guest of Honor at conferences such as the Paris Polar Crime Festival and Left Coast Crime. 

DEBS: I love that we're learning what an important role women played in WWII, and it's always such a pleasure to visit Paris with Cara, no matter the time period. She'll be dropping by today to say bon jour and to answer all your questions!

READERS, what's your favorite fictional WWII setting?

    

Cara Black Takes us on an Escape to Paris!

RHYS:  It's always a treat to host my near friend Cara Black when her new book comes out. I have loved all of her books, loved traveling vicariously to Paris with Aimee. But this book is different and I want to shout about it from the rooftops: It's called THREE HOURS IN PARIS and it is a big WW2 thriller, think Three Days of the Condor only with a warm, real heroine. It took my breath away when I read it.

Now the sad part: it was supposed to be Cara's big break out book, the one that takes her to a new level. Only all her events have been cancelled. So I urge you to spread the word in any way that you can.

Here's Cara now to ease our minds with a little dose of Paris.

CARA BLACK:

Dear Reds, I hope you’re doing well and sheltering in place. Right now, I’m missing Paris and feeling la nostalgie. I’m thinking about some of the hideaways in Paris I’d go to write in, places to get inspiration. Those unique libraries, the corner cafes I love, and gardens in quiet, secluded spots bringing peace and that je ne sais quoi that breathes Paris. I’m so happy Rhys asked me to share a few with you. Even though we’re cooped up inside we can go virtually. And when this ends, I don’t know about you, but I’ll be on the first flight to Paris.

To me, Bibliotheque Mazarine is like a historic hideaway on the Left Bank. A librarian helped me locate a rare archive book then assigned me a 19th century desk overlooking the Seine. I loved the smell of the old paper, being surrounded by leather bound volumes and those old wooden ladders to reach the books under a fresco’d ceiling. Housed in a 17th Century building created by Cardinal Mazarin as his personal library, it contains the richest collections of rare books and manuscripts in France and is the country’s oldest library.

Amazingly, it’s open to the public. You just need to sign up and records and books are available to consult. The library is quiet, you hear pages turn and it’s full of historians, researchers and students.

I took many notes; descriptions, details for my story and soaked in the ambiance under a chandelier owned by Madame du Pompadour.

Cafe la Fontaine became my ‘fountain penning’ inspiration. The irresistible urge hit me when I was walking through the lively Charonne district and stumbled upon La Fontaine. This cafe, near a street corner, pulled me with it’s spiral staircase. I don’t think much has changed since the 19th century.

After my discovery, armed with French notebooks, and a new fountain pen, I went often to write over an espresso. A glass of Champagne. I’d go over my notes, update them and sketch out a scene for my book or work in progress. This is a cafe where you can sit for hours. Watch the neighborhood go by. Full of locals, habitués and the cafe owner greets people by name. A real place of the quartier.

Jardin du Luxembourg

The Jardin du Luxembourg is a wonderful park in the sixth arrondissement on the Left Bank - with a children’s playground, a puppet theatre, tennis courts, a place to play ‘boules’, and a pond to sail boats. When there I find a quiet spot, sometimes near a statue to sit and let the words flow. Writing for me happens in a quiet space.

The beekeeping school and working bee hives directly inspired a plot line when I was writing, Murder in Saint Germain. I mapped the area, walked its gravelled paths, then my characters did, too.

For a scene in my new book, Three Hours in Paris, my first ever standalone that comes out on Tuesday, I used the bench overlooking the Marie de Medici fountain, one that I’d sat on often. I’d listened to the gurgling water, felt the soft summer air and imagined a scene. This story is set in 1940 but where I sat felt timeless. My characters would feel what I had been feeling; the heat, the sounds of the fountain, the crunching gravel of the paths and in those days, cigarette smoke. It helped me bring the scene to life.

Cara Black’s book, THREE HOURS IN PARIS, her first ever stand alone comes out on Tuesday, April 7.

In June of 1940, when Paris fell to the Nazis, Hitler spent a total of three hours in the City of Light - abruptly leaving, never to return. To this day, no one knows why.

Cara Black, author of the Aimée Leduc investigations, reimagines history in a pulse-pounding spy thriller. One American riflewoman, one impossible spy mission, one shot at changing the course of history. THREE HOURS IN PARIS is an April Indie Next pick, received starred reviews from Booklist and Library Journal.

RHYS: Cara’s book tour, as many other authors book tours, has been cancelled. Some virtual events will be on her website at www.carablack.com as they happen. Many bookstores are still operating as of now. In fact some, like the Poisoned Pen, are doing virtual events and are not charging for shipping.

If you feel inclined to share Cara's book news and other authors whose books are coming out this month, or are able to support your local bookseller with an order, or request her and other author's books from the library, it would be heartfully appreciated. We are all in this together, thank you!

Aimée Leduc's Paris, spycraft in Bel-Air

HALLIE EPHRON: A new Aimée Leduc mystery is the next best thing to a trip to Paris. I love the series, and today I'm thrilled to be hosting its delightful author Cara Black.

Cara, you’ve taken your readers on 19 adventures, each to a different part of Paris. I remember being blown away by your first, Murder in the Marais, cheering books later when Aimée found herself pregnant and tracking a serial rapist in Pigalle. Loved her computer savvy and fearlessness, her fashion sense and Kohl eyes, and the way you interweave history into every story.

I know you’re touring now with Aimée’s new adventure in Bel-Air. Not a tourist destination, or is it?

CARA BLACK: That’s right, Hallie, Bel-Air, in the 12th arrondissment is off the beaten track in Paris.

I’ve visited Paris often over the years and been so lucky to stay there due to the generosity and tolerance of my Parisian friends who’ve offered a couch, or a bedroom and sometimes an apartment in exchange for cat-sitting. One of these friends is Madame Gerbault, the mother of my French neighbor in San Francisco, who lives in Bel-Air and that her quiet, seemingly peaceful quartier had been the royal hunting grounds of the kings and site of the worst excesses of the Revolution ie the guillotine at Place de la Nation where 1,306 victims had been executed and their bodies dumped in a mass grave...literally, next door to her apartment.

I discovered that like everywhere in Paris, history is only below the surface. And that Madame Gerbault’s quartier was ripe for my story.

HALLIE: You took a huge leap when you got Aimée pregnant and now she’s a single mother. But you’ve followed Raymond Chandler’s advice: “A really good detective never gets married.” But how complicated life is now for her with Chloé to worry about. And yet… that very thing becomes integral to the plot of your new book. Tell us about it.

CARA: Aimée is a single mother juggling her business - at the detective agency where she must earn the baguette and butter it too along with her responsibilites as a mother and her bébe Chloé her priority. Add to that Chloé’s biological father, Melac, a problematic relationship and her American mother Sydney, who’s popped back into her life (she’d abandoned Aimée when Aimée was eight years old) who never makes it easy. Aimée feels a push and pull with Melac since he’s Chloé’s father but knows him not to be ‘marriage’ material or is he...?

HALLIE: Ooh, I like that romantic tension!

In this book you take a deep dive into international spycraft and post-colonial Franco-African politics. Tell us about how you researched that.CARA: My friend Laurence, a French journalist, went to live in the Cote d’Ivoire - Ivory Coast - a former French colony in Africa that had been the shining jewel in the necklace of France-Afrique as they called it. Cote d’Ivoire had a stable government and political scene, the French language, profitable chocolate trade, an easy access for the French on an exotic holiday but according to Laurence all was not rosy. This intrigued me and in 1999 when my story is set, a coup d’etat was in the works and the Cote d’Ivorian government overturned in a coup d’etat on Christmas day in 1999.

I researched with the help of Laurence, who sadly, died there in a plane crash last year. I also met French aid workers from UNICEF who’d been stationed in French Africa in the 90’s and a French military advisor (African division) to the UN who provided invaluable info and historical data. Of course, I’ve fictionalized certain elements and veiled some characters, but basically a lot of these events happened.

HALLIE: How does this book take Aimée into uncharted territory, and where are you thinking she might go next?CARA: The world of espionage fascinates me - especially the female component and how talented women can be as spies. Blend-in, stand out and all shades in between doing undercover, right? From Mata Hari in WWI, to the many unsung SOE female operatives in WW2 occupied Europe, to the Cold War and present day. Aimée’s mother we learn, SPOILER, worked with the CIA and is a freelancer now, who embroils her daughter in her work involving the Cote d’Ivoire.

I think Aimée is wired - despite her fighting it - to be a great spy...that’s if she took the offer she gets. It was fun to play with this possibility, dangle it in front of her and I’m leaving that open ended...

HALLIE: ... and leaving US dangling!

If readers want to catch up with you on tour, where should they head?

CARA: As you read this I’ll be mid-tour and at the wonderful Poisoned Pen in Scottsdale AZ this evening. Then on to bookstores in the LA area; Mystery Ink, Chevalier’s Books, Vroman’s, Mysterious Galaxy then back east to NY, NC, and Houston and in July in DC with pal Sujata Massey. It’s all on www.carablack.com at events and hope some of your readers can come by to help me celebrate 20 years of Aimée Leduc. I never knew when I began writing that I’d have a more than a twenty year intimate relationship with my fictional detective!

HALLIE: Readers and Reds, have you been to Paris or only experienced it through pictures? See anything that would inspire YOU to write a nice juicy crime novel?

In Paris with Cara Black

RHYS BOWEN: It's always a an exciting day when my partner-in-crime Cara Black releases a new Aimee Leduc novel and always a pleasure to welcome her back to Jungle Reds. It's especially fun today because I'm chatting with her actually IN PARIS.

So bonjour Cara! Can you describe to us where you are staying and what you can see out of your window? Is it an arrondissement you have already written about?

CARA BLACK: Bonjour Rhys and Reds! I’m staying at my friend, Jo’s apartment in Belleville - known Jo for aeons - and cat sitting ‘Nut’ who’s 18 years old. She’s almost as frisky and certainly as naughty as in her kitty days. Still we’ve titled her the dowager Nut.

Out the window is Nut’s perch, the school yard of the neighbouring Ecole Maternelle and gardens. Jo’s daughter went to this school next door and she could literally see her playing. Right now I’m hearing birds, children playing at recess, laughing, lots of French and the school bell. It’s wonderful to be back in Belleville - in Paris’ 20th arrondissement - where I set my second book, Murder in Belleville. Actually one of the scenes was inspired by this very view from Jo’s kitchen window from under which wind a labyrinth of alley ways past the garden, to the street.

RHYS: So tell us about the new book: where is it set, what’s it about and when does it come out?

-

CARA: Murder on the Left Bank comes out June 19th.

This is Aimée Leduc’s 18th -  hard to believe, right? - investigation which is set in the 13th arrondissement on the Left Bank. I’m throwing out a lot of numbers but Paris is divided on two banks into 20 arrondissements, each area with  neighbourhoods/quartiers having a different flavor and it’s own reputation. Murder on the Left Bank takes place in the 13th which used to be a ‘too far for moi’ zone for a lot of Parisians. A reputation for factories, communist workers, the former royal Gobelins tapestry factory and the biggest Chinatown - actually le petit Asie is more correct. To me, despite some of the modern buildings and upside down table shaped Bibliotheque Mitterand there’s so many pockets of charm - sloping cobbled lanes of two story workers houses dripping with ivy and now taken over by les bobo’s, a large Asian community who centre around 60’s tower blocks, the Gobelins tapestry factory with surrounding buildings from the 17th century, incredible street art promoted by the Socialist mayor and last, but not it least, the Seine.   rambling about the quartier I’ve come to love so here’s a bit about the story. It’s September 1999,  a dying man drags his oxygen machine into the office of Éric Besson, a lawyer in Paris’s 13th arrondissement. The old man, an accountant, is carrying a dilapidated notebook full of meticulous investment records. For decades, he has been helping a cadre of dirty cops launder stolen money. The notebook contains his full confession—he’s waited 50 years to make it, and now it can’t wait another day. He is adamant that Besson get the notebook into the hands of La Proc, Paris’s chief prosecuting attorney, so the corruption can finally be brought to light. But en route to La Proc, Besson’s courier—his assistant and nephew—is murdered, and the notebook disappears.

Here I’ve been

Grief-stricken Éric Besson tries to hire private investigator Aimée Leduc to find the notebook, but she is reluctant to get involved. Her father was a cop and was murdered by the same dirty syndicate the notebook implicates. She’s not sure which she’s more afraid of, the dangerous men who would kill for the notebook or the idea that her father’s name might be among the dirty cops listed within it. Ultimately that’s the reason she must take the case, which leads her across the Left Bank, from the Cambodian enclave of Khmer Rouge refugees to the ancient royal tapestry factories to the modern art galleries.

RHYS: I believe you told me that for the next book you are actually taking Aimée out of Paris. Is this something we’ll see more often in the series in future?  After all, how many more arrondissements are there?

CARA: That’s the plan but I’m still pondering. I zipped down to Marseille - it’s only three hours away on the TGV - and drank in the Mediterranean light, all those pastel houses with shutters and steep winding narrow streets in the panier, the basket. Remember the French Connection? Oh, and I met a Corsican mob member and a Marseille gangster who wrote and script and is trying to sell it at Cannes this week! Getting back to your question, I’ve only got two more arrondissements left so Aimée might be going to Marseille.

RHYS:Have you planned out a character arc for Aimee? Is she eventually going to end happily ever after?  How do you know when you’ve written enough books in a series (a question I ask myself a lot these days)

CARA:-That’s an interesting question. Her character arc, as it’s always seemed to me, is her reckoning with her family’s past and secrets and whether she can trust her godfather - had he betrayed her father? Will she understand and come to terms with what she finds concerning her father’s murder and her mother’s link to the CIA? She’s developed in her own way, and now as a mother with an almost toddler, she’ll need to move on. I think she’s going to find the right man even though she’s attracted to bad boys and his name…for me the series will come to a natural end…stay tuned.

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RHYS: Are you still enjoying spending time with her as much as you did when you write Murder in the Marais? Or are you toying with other ideas? A stand-alone perhaps?

CARA: Absolutely! While I’ve been in Paris, I’m sort of spending time with Aimée ie. going window shopping with her in Saint Germain,  eyeing shoes she’d wear, riding the Metro thinking how she’d react and she’s a great companion. It’s second nature. But I’m also thinking of a stand-alone set during World War II in Paris which would incorporate some of the incredible stories I’ve heard on visit from people who lived during the Occupation.

RHYS: What is the most fun thing you are going to be doing on this trip?

CARA: Hanging with Oliver, who runs the podcast the Earful Tower, and riding on his scooter. We rode from Aimée’s 17th century apartment on the Ile Saint-Louis to her office Leduc Detective (based at the real Duluc Detective) on rue du Louvre. We filmed it too. So fun and narrowly missed being caught by the traffic flics. I timed it eight minutes but know Aimée would get their faster and take shortcuts.

RHYS: What, no pix of you on the back of a scooter? Je suis desole! What is the best food you’ve eaten so far? Pix if possible please.

CARA: Boulliabase in Marseille. And of course a lot of patisserie

RHYS:Have you found any fabulous flea market clothes?

CARA:Seriously? My limit was one - a Parisian leather jacket with a gently worn collar, how could I resist?

RHYS: How can anyone resist Cara's yummy Parisian novels? They are the next best thing to a t trip across the Pond. And Cara is going to give away three signed copies of the new book to people who sign up for her newsletter. Here is the link:carablacknewsletter@gmail.com She'll be stopping by today to chat. Thank you so much mon amie! I always love seeing your pictures when you return. 

And check out Cara's website at www.carablack.com, or visit her on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter.

Cara Black: Murder in Saint-Germain

Cara Black is the author of 17 novels in her series of detective novels featuring Aimée Leduc, the fashionably attired, unfailingly intrepid Parisian private investigator. 

Jenn: I was lucky enough to meet Cara at ALA last year in Orlando and I am happy to report that she is as fabulous in person as she is in print. Being a lover of all things Paris, I am just thrilled that her latest Aimée Leduc novel is available this week!

In the latest book  Murder in Saint Germain, Aimée finds herself involved on the Left Bank.  Black's stories treat those who love Paris to vividly rendered scenes in favorite Parisian locations. This time some of them include the Ecole des Beaux Arts, the Jardin de Luxembourg, back offices of the Sénat, the church of St Germain des Pres, and the Closerie des Lilas, famous as one of Hemingway's favorite cafés. Complicating matters for Aimée is the fact that she is now the single mother of an 8-month old baby. 

What's the most interesting or surprising thing you learned about the 6th arrondissement--or maybe about Paris--in writing Murder in Saint Germain?

-Good question, Jenn, and hi Reds, thanks for having me back! 

I was lucky enough to be invited, after a lot of begging, to tour the Saint Germain area with Patrick, a commander in the Brigade Criminelle (elite Paris homicide squad). The Saint-Germain quarter was Patrick’s first ‘beat’ as a new flic after graduating from the police academy. It was fascinating to walk with Patrick on his old haunts in the quarter. He told me about his first cases, the investigations and we actually visited where they happened. It opened my eyes. ‘Here’ he said, ‘we found an old woman who’d been murdered and solved it by uncovering a robbery that had gone wrong’. He pointed to the rooftops and explained how a lot of burglaries happened via the skylights. He talked about policing at that time, in the 90’s, and how, as an effective flic, you needed to know your community and nourish your contacts. He used to see Marcel Carné, the famous film director of les Enfants du Paradis, who lived next door to the Commissariat. Monsieur Carné would always say bonjour to him!     

You've been in some very interesting situations in the course of researching your stories, and I must say I think you are almost as intrepid in pursuing your stories as Aimée is in pursuing villains. What's the funniest, or most unusual, situation you found yourself in the course of researching this book? 

-Stooping and crab walking in the old tunnels under the 

Jardin du Luxembourg! Seriously these tunnels traverse juste à cote to Boulevard Saint Michel and are deep underground. The underground tunnels are full of history and stories from rumored royal escapes to WW2 exploits. They also house air raid shelters used by the German Luftwaffe who were stationed in the Lycée Montaigne during the Occupation. There are still signs in German and rusted memorabilia. Oddly, the temperature is moderate and maybe it’s because the walls are limestone. It’s another world down there, quiet and full of the past.

Plot is of course of utmost importance in a crime novel. Do you plot your stories through to the end before you start writing, or does the plot develop organically along the way, as you are writing the story?

 -More organically. I knew Aimée was a single mom with an eight month old, she had unresolved guilt issues about her god father Morbier and she’d be doing computer security at Ecole des Beaux Arts. In crime fiction, policier, it’s about putting your protagonist out on a limb, chopping it down and they have to climb higher and higher and the branches get thinner and thinner. Putting your protagonist in conflict reveals their character. I’ve lived with Aimée for a long time and try to deepen her character and the problems she faces which I hope reflect what a contemporary Parisian faces. I met a female police officer, also part of an elite squad for lunch, I was dying to hear about her job, what it was like to work in a male dominated place. But she kept bringing the conversation back to her secondment to the Hague working on the Balkans with an international team for the International Court for crimes in the Former Yugoslavia. Her tales were harrowing and she suffered what we’d call PTSD. Only then did I realize that was part of the story I wanted to tell. Had to tell.

One of the things about your writing is a kind of cinematic quality to your descriptions of Paris as Aimée moves around it. You render not only the complicated action at the center of your plot, but also the background details. How do you do this? Do you take notes of actual scenes you observe while you're in Paris, or are you able to create these little vignettes out of your memory, or your imagination?

-In Paris, I take photos, record street sounds and in the cafes. I take a lot of notes and eavesdrop conversations on the # 96 Paris bus which goes from Belleville through the city to Montparnasse. It’s my favorite bus line because you traverse the city, right to left bank, and the passengers reflect it. Being a mapaholic and walking the streets at different times of the day inform a scene - it’s always important to visit a place at different times of the day to see how the light falls, the sounds, the morning bustle at the cafe, people returning from work stopping for an aperitif and paint the quarter as it lives and breathes.

Thanks so much for visiting us, Cara! Congrats on the release of Murder in Saint-Germain. So, Reds, are you like Cara and let your plot develop organically or do you plot your story all the way through to the end? 

Susan's April in Paris

SUSAN ELIA MACNEAL: Bonjour, Reds and lovely readers! Er, hello... Still walking on air after the Paris trip, to research Maggie Hope #7, THE PARIS SPY. 

But meanwhile, no rest for the wicked. The ARC (Advance Readers Copy) of THE QUEEN'S ACCOMPLICE is out! Huzzah! (And if you're a book blogger and would like to request a NetGalley copy, please contact publicist Alex Coumbis at acoumbis@penguirandomhouse.com.)

Meanwhile, it's my job to go over the ARC, to make the last corrections. As you see, I have Lola, trusty editrix extraordinnaire, at my side during the process....

But back to Paris!  I went solo, for ten days, with a primitive grasp of French and a long list of sites I wanted to visit for my research. I'm happy to report that I made it through the whole trip speaking only French — with just a bit of Spanish thrown in. (Studied Spanish for eight years, so comes out sometimes when I try other Romance languages.)

For this trip, I wasn't doing "tourist Paris" — it really was all about researching the Nazi occupation during the spring of 1942, a few months before the infamous July 16 Vel' d'Hiv roundup of the Jews.

To that end, one of my first stops was the Musée de la Armée — the Army Museum. Where most people beeline to the tomb of Napoleon, I spent my day in the World War I and World War II sections, as well as the Charles DeGaulle exhibit.

I took photos of the parts I found most interesting:

and:

But it was this graffito, part of a preserved wall — V for Victory plus the symbol of the Résistance — that really was a game changer for me. With every book, I've found a place or a thing that's the catalyst to making it all come alive for me. This was it. Whoever wrote this symbol risked certain death if caught. And still, she or he did it, as part of the fight, no matter how small. 

I found it powerful.

Of course, not everything was quite so serious. Here's a gorgeous Elsa Schiaparelli dress from 1942, which I saw at the Louvre Mode and Textile Museum. (It was probably made for and worn by the wife of a high-ranking collaborator or the mistress of a Nazi officer.)

It was part of an exhibit of French fashion throughout history:

And here are some chic chien:

And hey, isn't that Aimee Leduc's detective agency's sign, from Cara Black's fantastic series? (If only Maggie and Aimee could meet....)

On the darker end of the spectrum, I did visit Avenue Fochs, home of Gestapo Headquarters in Paris:

The fifth floor, what used to be the servants quarters, is where the Gestapo kept Résistance workers and captured British agents, while "interrogation" took place in the cellar. 

However, I found this early-blooming iris, the "fleur de lis" and symbol of France, growing opposite.

SUSAN: I hope you enjoyed the photos! Is Paris the setting of any of your favorite books? I recently reread Dickens' A TALE OF TWO CITIES and remembered why I loved it so much in high school. And, of course, I'm a huge fan of Cara Black's Aimee Leduc novels. 

What are your favorite novels set in Paris or France? Please tell us in the comments!