**Cara Black's riveting 19th installment in her New York Times
bestselling Parisian detective series entangles private investigator
Aimée Leduc in a dangerous web of international spycraft, post-colonial
Franco-African politics, and neighborhood secrets in Paris's 12th
arrondissement.
**
Parisian private investigator Aimée Leduc is about to go onstage to
deliver the keynote address at a tech conference that is sure to secure
Leduc Detective some much-needed business contracts when she gets an
emergency phone call from her daughter's playgroup: Aimée's own mother,
who was supposed to pick Chloe up, never showed. Abandoning her hard-won
speaking gig, Aimée rushes to get Chloe, annoyed that her mother has let
her down yet again.
But as Aimée and Chloe are leaving the playground, Aimée witnesses the
body of a homeless woman being wheeled away from the neighboring
convent, where nuns run a soup kitchen. The last person anyone saw the
dead woman talking to was Aimée's mother, who has vanished. Trying to
figure out what happened to Sydney Leduc, Aimée tracks down the dead
woman's possessions, which include a huge amount of cash. What did
Sydney stumble into? Is she in trouble?