Murder in the Marais

This book by Cara Black is the first (1999) in her Aimée Leduc series; there are now 19 books featuring Aimée.  It was recommended by one of the members in my mystery book group (thanks Joy Morris) and I thoroughly enjoyed the main characters as well as the setting in Paris. Here is the summary from the author's website: "Aimée Leduc has always sworn she would stick to tech investigation—no criminal cases for her. Especially since her father, the late police detective, was killed in the line of duty. But when an old Jewish man approaches Aimée with a top-secret decoding job on behalf of a woman in his synagogue, Aimée unwittingly takes on more than she was expecting. When she goes to drop off her findings at her client’s house in the Marais, Paris’s historic Jewish quarter, she finds the old woman strangled, a swastika carved on her forehead. With the help of her partner, René, Aimée sets out to solve this horrendous crime, but finds herself in an increasingly dangerous web of ancient secrets and buried war crimes." 

"Although set in Paris in the early 1990s, Black's new series start harks back to World War II crimes. ...Aimée's subsequent investigation exposes the connection between a war-time romance gone wrong and the modern-day murder. Literate prose, intricate plotting, and multifaceted and unusual characters mark this excellent first mystery." (Library Journal)

Publishers Weekly says of this "standout" novel, "a thrilling, quick-paced chase involving neo-Nazis, corrupt government officials and fierce anti-Semitism. With the help of her partner, René, a computer hacking expert, Aim e uncovers tantalizing clues relating to German war veteran Hartmuth Griffe, the Jewish girl he saved from Auschwitz, a French trade minister and other enigmatic figures. But the data Aimée and René come up with only takes them so far. In order to understand the true motive behind the killing, Aimée must delve into history, confronting older residents of the quarter--who'd prefer she leave the past alone--and doing some undercover work. The suspense is high as she fraternizes dangerously with the enemy, even becoming briefly involved with an Aryan supremacist. Black knows Paris well, and in her first-rate debut she deftly combines fascinating anecdotes from the city's war years with classic images of the City of Lights."

Read the back story for this plot in an intervivew with NPR. Black likes to explore and use the particular neighborhoods of Paris for her stories. "She says her goal is to capture the living, vibrant city that meshes with its history and the ghosts of its past." Next in the series, Murder in Belleville.