Aimée Leduc
Aimée Leduc is a fictional character who first appeared in print in 1998. She is the creation of author Cara Black. She is a Paris-based, modern, female, private investigator. The bestselling mystery series is called Aimée Leduc Investigations.
Aimée Leduc is French, born to an American mother and a French police investigator. Her mother disappeared when she is 8 years old and she is raised by her father, who removes all reminder of her mother's existence. She lives in Paris during the 1990s. She attends the famous Sorbonne as a pre-med student, but decides that medecine is not a forte and decides to take over the Leduc Investigation firm after her father death during a stake out. She specializes in computer investigation with her partner Rene, her friend from her Sorbonne days. Her adventure take her in area of Paris unknown to most of us. But each of her story is based in historical reality. She has been described by Booklist as, "...a delightfully unbuttoned Audrey Hepburn for the twenty-first century….”, but with a punk-rock attitude and in far more dangerous settings. Leduc is a sharp, fashionable, hip, and quite headstrong young woman who has assumed the investigative mantle left to her by her father. After his death during a stake out, she took control of his detective business. During the course of her investigations she often finds need for disguise or hacking into computer systems. Aimee often puts herself in danger and at time gets injured. In one dramatic scene in Murder in Bastille she was blinded, though later her vision was restored.
Though Chanel-wearing, outifts that she acquire at many second hand shops Leduc's unconventional attitude can be compared with Sherlock Holmes' "Bohemian" lifestyle. As do many detectives, she has a satellite-system of oddball side characters. René Friant, a dwarf and computer expert, is her partner. Commissaire Morbier is her god-father and sometimes helps her on cases or with official leverage. Inspector Melac is her implacable, hardnosed rival on the police force, a kind of Inspector Kramer to Nero Wolfe.
The Leduc series often explores in realistic detail her fictional Parisienne community, ambience, and landscape. It is also notable for interweaving complex familial intrigue and emotions into the standard mystery plots. She is always in search of her father's murderer, her vanished mother, and, in the later books, involved with sibling-related subplots.
The Aimée Leduc Investigation series has been translated into five languages.
Awards
Aimée Leduc is included in the Great Women Mystery Writers, by Elizabeth Lindsay.
Murder in Marais was nominated for an Anthony Award (Best First Novel). Murder in the Sentier was nominated for two Anthony Awards (Best Novel and Best Cover Design).
Murder in the Rue de Paradis was listed in the Washington Post Best Books of 2008.
Works
- Murder in the Marais (1998), ISBN 1-56947-212-2
- Murder in Belleville (2000), ISBN 1-56947-279-3
- Murder in the Sentier (2002), ISBN 1-56947-331-5
- Murder in the Bastille (2003), ISBN 1-56947-364-1
- Murder in Clichy (2004), ISBN 1-56947-411-7
- Murder in Montmartre (2005), ISBN 1-56947-445-1
- Murder on the Ile Saint-Louis (2007), ISBN 1-56947-475-3
- Murder in the Rue de Paradis (2008), ISBN 1-56947-542-3
- Murder in the Latin Quarter (2009), ISBN 1-56947-541-5
- Murder in the Palais Royal (2010), ISBN 978-1-56947-620-8
- Murder in Passy (2011)
- Murder at the Lanterne Rouge (2012)
- Murder Below Montparnasse (2013)
- Murder in Pigalle (2014)
- Murder on the Champ de Mars (2015)