damn these first-time novelists.
One year ago: The world ended. Bummer.
Two years ago: The President makes a speech. Was that only two years ago???
Three years ago: I pay for the most painful massage ever.
Four years ago: I have a very bad time moving to LA.
A guy I know in Real Life® told me recently he'd found my journal and read the entry about cell phones.
"What'd you think?" I asked.
"You're like a junior curmudgeon!" he said.
I guess it was a compliment. Sigh.
It's only taken me the better part of a week, but I finally read Murder in the Marais by Cara Black. (A few pages at night, a few pages in the morning. I've discovered I have books scattered all over the house, victims of exactly this -- I read a few pages, put the book down, and then never got back to it. I guess this doesn't say much for the book.)
Murder in the Marais is the story of Aimee LeDuc, a private investigator who usually works in corporate security. But she takes on a case involving a Jewish Nazi hunter. She uncovers information about Neo-Nazis in France, the French Occupation, and murders that span 50 years.
There are problems with the book: a very slow opening, a couple of murders happening 50 years apart (and when one of the victims was mentioned, it took me a while to remember whether it was the present-time one or the older one), and a few descriptions are confusing -- for example, I thought one very important aspect of the plot wasn't explained well enough.
But once the plot kicks into gear it's exciting stuff, and I was trying to figure out how all these disparate elements fit together as well. What I liked about it the best was the descriptions of Paris and the descriptions about what happened in France during the Occupation. Black also has a few off-kilter descriptions of people, avoiding the stereotypes that would be all too easy. I like the way that something that appeared to be fairly small and straightforward in the beginning mushrooms into something much bigger than it first appears.
I'm looking forward to the sequel, Murder in Belleville. I shoukd mention this was Black's first novel. Needless to say, that part makes me very, very depressed.
 |
 |
 |
 |
Copyright 2000 Diane Patterson
Send comments and questions to diane@nobody-knows-anything.com