RHYS BOWEN: It is always a great joy to welcome back to Jungle Reds my dear friend and long-time travel companion Cara Black. This time it's with a new Aimee book.: MURDER AT THE PORTE DE VERSAILLES. Those of you who don't know Aimee should! Chic, edgy, impossibly high heels, designer fashions bought at the flea market and rides a pink Vespa...and with a penchant for bad boys and danger.
So Cara and I are going to have a little chat to find out what's going on with Aimee and with Cara.
RHYS: So welcome, Cara. Let's start with a little about Aimee herself. Where is she now in her life --professional and personal - in the 20th book?
CARA BLACK: We met her in the first book Murder in the Marais set in 1993 I know 20 books later it’s now about 8 years later in her life and she now has a toddler whose name is Chloé and she is still running her detective agency with her partner. She has a difficult relationship with Chloe's biological father who wants her to leave Paris and come to live in Brittany because it will be better for Chloe. He has a farm with horses and goats, close to the sea and the air is wonderful and Aimée is very conflicted. She wants the best for Chloé and is feeling guilty that she doesn't want to go to Brittany because her business is in Paris. She likes having a café at the corner of the street and she doesn't think in Brittany there are cafés at the end of the farm field. Also she is juggling as a single mother with her business, raising her daughter, and doubts if she is doing a good job. She feels a gnawing guilt and wondering if she’s being selfish not to leave Paris. But for once, her detective agency is doing really well, she and René have more computer security business than they can handle and she’s got to put the ‘baguette’ on the table as the sole breadwinner.
RHYS: What inspired you to write this? What's this book about briefly?
CARA: My book came from a story I heard in Paris from my friend -w hen he was a young boy he lived directly across the street from the police laboratory in the 15th arrondissement. In the middle of the he fell out his bed and found himself on the floor. There had been a bomb explosion in the police laboratory across the street his window looked right on it. In the morning his parents told him it was a Basque separatist bombing ‘only’ a political statement. No one was hurt and that was very much what the Basques did at this time you know doing this as political statements. At the time I was also going to explore what Paris and France were like after 9/11 which very much time wise followed with Aimée’s previous investigation and so the book is set shortly after 9/11 in November. In Paris it’s the anniversary of Aimée’s fathers death and she has brought Chloe her three-year-old to honor her father whose remains are at the Pere Lachaise cemetery and it is very bittersweet because it is also Chloe's birthday she is turning three years old.
At Chloe's birthday in Aimée’s apartment on Ile Saint-Louis everyone in Aimée’s life is there: her partner in the business, Chloe's biological father, her godfather, and Boris and Michou close friends who babysit Chloe. But mon Dieu Boris has forgotten Chloe's present on his desk at his office in the police laboratory and jumps in a taxi to get it. When he doesn't return they receive a phone call that there has been a bomb explosion at the police laboratory. Boris is found in the rubble barely alive but with traces of explosive under his fingernails and he is a suspect in the bombing.
RHYS: I'm currently writing a book partly set in Paris. How come we're never there at the same time! So....What if we were in Paris at the same time researching - first thing we’d do would be….?
CARA: I think it would be so fun to meet you in Paris while we are both researching. The first place I suggest is we meet for Champagne and oysters is at the belle époque Café de la Paix right in front of the opera and I think it would be amazing and so much fun. and bien sûr, any Reds who are in town are invited :)
RHYS: Tell the Reds what your research in Paris is like. (I already hear moans of envy.
CARA: My research takes place at the archives for primary source material, consulting digitised newspapers and hanging with les flics, the police and going to the shooting ranges with them - at least before 9/11 I did. I'm talking with cafe owners, bus drivers, basically anyone who will talk to me. I like walking the streets and really feel that walking the ground of the place I am writing about gives my work some weight. I’ve joined several historical associations in the different arrondissements of Paris and I find out historical details and get to meet people who were born and grew up in the arrondissement and talk about their childhood; what it's like to live there. I love going to the market and discovering a new cheese shop or patisserie that’s new to me. Of course, I need to sample, right? It's really important getting to know that arrondissement I'm writing about even going back in time to its origins and history. For me it's always about finding that special characteristic of this place in Paris, the flavour and ambience and capture that village like feeling. I think it's important to walk on the street; smell the smells, hear the noises, how the light falls as Aimée, my detective would. And of course, stop off at a patisserie - did I mention I like patisseries?
RHYS: Oh oui, patisseries! My favorite occupation in Paris is window shopping in Patisseries and trying not to drool.
Now we're at book 20. Aren't there 20 arrondissements? You’ve pretty much exhausted the arrondissements. So what’s next. Will she move to Brittany?(can’t see her there)
CARA: Actually I have one more arrondissement left because I goofed and put two books in one arrondissement so I am working on that story and you'll have to guess which is the last arrondissement:)
What's next is really the follow up to Three Hours in Paris, my WW2 historical standalone thriller and Kate Rees will be back in the next follow up set in 1942. The title is Night Flight to Paris which is your suggestion Rhys! I not only thank you but want you always to come up with my titles.
RHYS: Three Hours in Paris was amazing! Such a great thriller. And happy to help with titles. Many of mine are a collaboration of good minds.
Nearly all of Aimee’s cases are intensely personal for her. Was this something you planned when you started or has she just taken over and decided what she’ll investigate?
CARA: That's a great question and it makes me think about when I started writing a series and the books that I like to read and stories that captured me. They always came from a personal tie in from the protagonist. A police person in law enforcement that’s their job but a challenge to make it personal. Aimée grew up with a father, a former French policeman. So many police would sit at their kitchen table so she has absorbed that world, is familiar with the boys network and watching your partner’s back. She’s got that skill set to investigate, her father taught her and he was a single father and she learned from helping her father in the detective agency. She became a licensed detective and will only help and take a case when it's important to someone or she feels the person is a victim and they are voiceless and she wants to give a voice to them. Give them some form of justice.
RHYS:Some of her cases are really harrowing. How much do they affect you or can you keep yourself detached?
CARA: Yes, I love the fact that Aimée is in danger and she looks stylish at the same time! In Murder at the port of Versailles she's climbing on a roof wearing a black leather cat suit and that was really fun to write. I wish I could do that and look good at the same time but I’m not French. She needs to be in danger, the stakes need to be high to make the story compelling in her world. Our genre has many threads - cozy, suspense, domestic thrillers etc and I like to write what what I like to read. I think it's very important she's not a plastic stereotype, but human she's vulnerable and makes mistakes, too.
RHYS:Did you manage to get to Paris during the pandemic? If so how was it there?
CARA: After two years I was lucky to go in September 2021 because I was teaching a writing class weeklong at a Château outside of Bordeaux. It was amazing and I am so thrilled that it we actually got to do that and I would do it again in a heartbeat. Bordeaux was an area that I had never had been to. I want to go back and explore. Yes in Paris everyone was very conscious of Covid and wearing masks and we had to show our vaccination card constantly which I really appreciated. In the museums even the free ones you had to make a reservation to limit the number of people. It’s always changing so I'm going in April and need to find out the new regulations.
RHYS: And of course: is Aimee an alter ego? Do you want her life with the Vespa and the high heels? ( I notice she is giving up smoking!)
CARA: Maybe an alter ego but I am afraid of heights I don’t wear high heels and I know that I do want to live in her apartment. The Vespa would be great but it's very temperamental. Yes I have given up smoking but Aimée is always struggling with that and she's much better on the computer than I am.
RHYS: Thank you for taking the time to talk today, CARA. I've just finished the book and it is a nail-biter! Oh my goodness--so many twists and turns, plus a little surprise at the end....
MURDER AT THE PORT DE VERSAILLES is the 20th in the series, and one of the best, in my opinion. Do ask Cara questions today!
