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This page lists novels and non-fiction by Cara Black.

Cover images are, where possible, of the first US edition.

Murder in the Marais

Cara Black

1998

An Aimée Leduc novel.

"Aimée Leduc, a Parisian private investigator, 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."

Murder in Belleville

Cara Black

2000

An Aimée Leduc novel.

"When Anaïs de Froissart calls Parisian private investigator Aimée begging for help, Aimée assumes the woman wants to hire her to do surveillance on her philandering politician husband again. Aimée is too busy right now to indulge her. But Anaïs insists Aimée must come, that she is in trouble and scared. Aimée tracks Anaïs down just in time to see a car bomb explode, injuring Anaïs and killing the woman she was with. Anaïs can’t explain what Aimée just witnessed. The dead woman, Anaïs says, is Sylvie Coudray, her cheating husband’s long-time mistress, but she has no idea who wanted her dead, and Anaïs officially hires Aimée to investigate. As she digs into Sylvie Coudray’s murky past, Aimée finds that the dead woman may not be who Anaïs thought she was.."

Murder in the Sentier

Cara Black

2002

An Aimée Leduc novel.

"When Parisian private investigator Aimée Leduc picks up the phone one hot July afternoon, the call turns her life upside-down. The voice on the other end, with its heavy German accent, belongs to a woman named Jutta Hald. Jutta claims to have shared a jail cell with Aimée’s long-lost mother, a suspected terrorist on Interpol’s most wanted list. If Aimée wants to learn the truth about her mother, she is to meet Jutta at a rendezvous point in an ancient tower in the Sentier. But when Aimée arrives, Jutta is dead, shot in the head at close range. Aimée realizes she has stumbled into something bigger than Jutta let on, and that her own life is in danger. She has a lot of unsolved mysteries in front of her: Jutta Hald’s murder, resurfaced materials from Sydney Leduc’s terrorist activities in the 1970s, police suppression of important information. The question is, can Aimée put the pieces together before someone else ends up dead?"

Murder in the Bastille

Cara Black

2003

An Aimée Leduc novel.

"Parisian private investigator Aimée Leduc is all dressed up in her new Chinese silk jacket, supposedly a designer’s “exclusive,” for dinner with a difficult client at an elegant restaurant in the Bastille district. She is chagrined to see that the woman seated at the very next table is wearing an identical jacket. When the woman leaves her cell phone on the table, Aimée follows her to return it and is attacked in the shadowy Passage Boule Blanche. When she regains consciousness, Aimée finds that she is blind. Nevertheless, she is told she is lucky; the woman she was following was found in the next passage, murdered. Aimée is determined to identify her attacker. Was he actually a serial killer targeting showy blondes, as the police insist? Was he really after the other woman? Or was Aimée his intended victim?"

Murder in Clichy

Cara Black

2004

An Aimée Leduc novel.

"Private investigator Aimée Leduc has been introduced to the Cao Dai temple in Paris by her partner, René Friant. He urges her to learn to meditate: she could use a more healthful approach to life. The Vietnamese nun Linh has been helping Aimée to attain her goal, so when she asks Aimée for a favor - to go to the Clichy quartier to exchange an envelope for a package - René prompts Aimée to agree. But the intended recipient, Thadée Baret, is shot and dies in Aimée's arms before the transaction can be completed, leaving Aimée with a wounded arm, a check for 50,000 francs, and a trove of ancient jade artifacts. Whoever killed Baret wants the jade. The RG - the French secret service - a group of veterans of the war in Indochina and some wealthy ex-colonials and international corporations seeking oil rights are all implicated. And the nun, Linh, has disappeared."

Murder in Montmartre

Cara Black

2005

An Aimée Leduc novel.

"Aimée Leduc is having a bad day. First, she comes home from work at her Paris detective agency to learn that her boyfriend is leaving her. She goes out for a drink with her friend Laure, a police officer, but Laure's patrol partner, Jacques, interrupts, saying he needs to talk to Laure urgently. The two leave the bar, and when they don't return, Aimée follows Laure's path and finds her sprawled on a snowy rooftop, not far from Jacques, who is bleeding from a fatal gunshot wound. When the police arrive, they arrest Laure for murder. No one is interested in helping Aimée figure out the truth. As she chases down increasingly dangerous leads in the effort to free her friend, Aimée stumbles into a web of Corsican nationalists, separatists, gangsters, and artists. Could Jacques's murder and Laure's arrest be part of a much bigger cover-up?"

Murder on the Ile Saint-Louis

Cara Black

2007

An Aimée Leduc novel.

"Parisian private investigator Aimée Leduc is working on a tight deadline for a cybersecurity contract when she gets a phone call that disrupts all her progress. The female voice on the other end begs Aimée to go out into her courtyard, insists that her life is in danger, that Aimée must not call the police, then hangs up. Aimée’s project is in jeopardy, and her partner, René, will be furious if she botches this assignment, but she can’t ignore the distress in the mysterious caller’s voice. That doesn’t mean she’s prepared for what she finds in the courtyard, though: a newborn baby, wrapped in a blood-stained beaded jacket. Aimée wants to track down the baby’s mother, but when a young woman’s body washes up in the Seine on the shores of the Ile Saint-Louis, the little island where Aimée herself lives, she realizes the situation is very dangerous."

Murder in the Rue de Paradis

Cara Black

2008

An Aimée Leduc novel.

"Aimée Leduc seems to be having a streak of good luck. First, she secures a lucrative computer security contract for her Paris detective agency. Then her ex-boyfriend Yves, the gorgeous bad-boy investigative journalist, reappears in her life. He insists he’s back in Paris indefinitely—and wants to make the ultimate commitment. He proposes to her that very night, and Aimée can’t help but say yes. When she wakes up in the morning, though, Yves is gone without even leaving a note. Aimée is irate until she learns the awful truth: Yves was murdered early that morning. Heartbroken and convinced the Brigade Criminelle are not following the right leads, Aimée pursues the mystery behind her fiancé’s murder. Yves was killed trying to further a cause he believed in. Even if it means putting her own life on the line, Aimée won’t let him die in vain."

Murder in the Latin Quarter

Cara Black

2009

An Aimée Leduc novel.

"A Haitian woman arrives at the Paris office of Leduc Detective and announces that she is P.I. Aimée Leduc’s sister. A virtual orphan since her mother’s desertion and her father’s death, Aimée has always wanted a sister. She is thrilled. Her partner, René, however, is wary of this stranger. Under French law, even an illegitimate child would be entitled to a portion of her father's estate: the detective agency and apartment that Aimée has inherited. He suspects a scam. But Aimée embraces her newfound sibling and soon finds herself involved in murky Haitian politics and international financial scandals leading to murder in the Latin Quarter on the Left Bank of the Seine, the old university district of Paris."

Murder in the Palais Royal

Cara Black

2010

An Aimée Leduc novel.

"Just as Aime is about to leave for New York City to follow up on a lead about a man who might be her brother, her partner in Leduc Detective, Ren Friant, is wounded by a near-fatal gunshot. Eyewitnesses identify Aime as the culprit. The police have pegged her as the guilty party. Aime is distraught over Ren's condition and horrified to be under suspicion. At the same time, a large, mysterious sum appears in the firm's bank account, and the tax authorities descend upon Aime. Someone is impersonating her - someone who wants revenge. But what for?"

Murder in Passy

Cara Black

2011

An Aimée Leduc novel.

"The village-like neighbourhood of Passy, home to many of Paris' wealthiest residents, is the last place you would expect a murder. But when Aimee Leduc's godfather Morbier asks her to check on his girlfriend that's exactly what she does find. Circumstantial evidence makes Morbier the prime suspect and it is up to Aimee to vindicate him. Her investigation leads her to police corruption, the terrorist group ETA and a kidnapped Spanish princess."

Murder at the Lanterne Rouge

Cara Black

2011

An Aimée Leduc novel.

"Aimée Leduc is happy her longtime business partner René has found a girlfriend. It’s not her fault if she can’t suppress her doubts about the relationship. And her misgivings may not be far off the mark: Meizi disappears during a Chinatown dinner to take a phone call and never returns to the restaurant. Minutes later, the body of a young man, a science prodigy and volunteer at the nearby Musée, is found shrink-wrapped in an alleyway - with Meizi’s photo in his wallet. Aimée does not like this scenario one bit, but she can’t figure out how the murder is connected to Meizi’s disappearance. The dead genius was sitting on a discovery that has France’s secret service keeping tabs on him. Now they’re keeping tabs on Aimée. What has she gotten herself into? And can she get herself—and her friends—back out of it alive?"

Murder below Montparnasse

Cara Black

2013

An Aimée Leduc novel.

"The cobbled streets of Montparnasse might have been boho-chic in the 1920s, when artists, writers, and their muses drank absinthe and danced on cafe tables. But to Parisian private investigator Aimée Leduc, these streets hold darker secrets. When an old Russian man named Yuri hires Aimée to protect a priceless painting that just might be a Modigliani, she learns how deadly art theft can be. Yuri is found tortured to death in his atelier, and the painting is missing. Every time Aimée thinks she's found a new witness, the body count rises. What exactly is so special about this painting that so many people are willing to kill—and die—for it?"

Murder in Pigalle

Cara Black

2014

"Private Investigator Aime Leduc has been trying to slow down her hectic lifestyle, take on only computer security assignments and maybe try to learn how to cook (quelle catastrophe!). She's vowed not to let herself get involved in any more dangerous shenanigans - she's pregnant and has the baby's well-being to think about now. All of her best intentions to live the quiet life fall away when a serial rapist starts terrorising Paris's Pigalle neighbourhood. In the frantic race against time that ensues, Aime discovers a terrifying secret neighbourhood history."

Murder on the Champ de Mars

Cara Black

2015

An Aimée Leduc novel.

"Paris, April 1999: Aimee Leduc has her work cut out for her - running her detective agency and fighting off sleep deprivation as she tries to be a good single mother to her new baby. The last thing she has time for now is to take on a personal investigation for a poor manouche (Gypsy) boy. But he insists his dying mother has an important secret she needs to tell Aimee, something to do with Aimee's father's unsolved murder a decade ago. How can she say no? The dying woman's secret is even more dangerous than her son realized. When Aimee arrives at the hospital, the boy's mother has disappeared. She was far too sick to leave on her own-she must have been abducted. What does she know that's so important it's worth killing for? And will Aimee be able to find her before it's too late and the medication keeping her alive runs out?"

Murder on the Quai

Cara Black

2016

An Aimée Leduc novel.

"1989: Aimee Leduc is in her first year of college at Paris's preeminent medical school. She lives with her father, who runs the family detective agency. The week the Berlin Wall crumbles, so does Aimee's life as she knows it. Someone sabotages her work, her boyfriend gets engaged to someone else, and her father takes off to Berlin on a mysterious errand, asking Aimee to help out at the detective agency while he's gone. The case Aimee finds herself investigating - a murder linked to a transport truck of Nazi gold - has gotten under her skin. Her heart may not lie in medicine after all."

Murder in Saint-Germain

Cara Black

2017

An Aimée Leduc novel.

"Private investigator Aimee Leduc is coming home from a long day's work when she is accosted by an acquaintance who once did her a big favour. Suzanne Lesage is an agent on an elite counterterrorism squad who has been working undercover in the former Yugoslavia, hunting down war criminals. Now Suzanne is back in Paris and is convinced she's being stalked by a Serbian warlord responsible for hundreds of murders - a man who's meant to be dead. Her boss thinks she's just suffering PTSD but Suzanne begs Aimee to investigate - is it possible this dangerous man is in Paris with a blood vendetta?"

Murder on the Left Bank

Cara Black

2018

An Aimée Leduc novel.

"When his nephew is murdered while carrying a notebook exposing dirty cops as money launderers, grief-stricken Eric Besson tries to hire private investigator Aimee Leduc to find the notebook, but she is reluctant to get involved. Her father was a cop and was murdered by the same dirty syndicate the notebook implicates. But she has her own reasons for ultimately taking the case, which leads her across the Left Bank, from the Cambodian enclave of Khmer Rouge refugees to the ancient royal tapestry factories to the modern art galleries."

Aimee Leduc's Paris: A Companion to Cara Black's Aimee Leduc Mystery Series

Cara Black / ?

2011

Published electronically.

"For newcomers and old fans alike, this companion will bring you up to speed on previous books in the series. Tour the arrondissements of Paris with interactive maps that show not only places featured in the twelve books of the series, but Cara's favorite cafes, bistros, and shops in Paris, and various other nooks and crannies of the City of Lights."

Making Story: Twenty-One Writers on How They Plot

Editor: Timothy Hallinan

2012

Includes chapter by Cara Black called Plotting And Playdough.

"In Making Story twenty-one novelists - who have written more than 100 books among them and sold more than a million copies - talk about how they go about turning an idea into a plot, and a plot into a book. This is an indispensable book for aspiring authors and the first in a series, each focusing on a different writing challenge."

Books to Die For

Editor: John Connolly and Declan Burke

2012

The World's Greatest Mystery Writers on the World's Greatest Mystery Novels.

Cara Black writes about The Moving Toyshop by Edmund Crispin in this collection..

"In a series of personal essays that often reveal as much about themselves and their work as they do about the books that they love, more than 120 authors from twenty countries have created a guide that will be indispensable for generations of readers and writers. From Christie to Child and Poe to PD James, from Sherlock Holmes to Hannibal Lecter and Philip Marlowe to Peter Wimsey, Books To Die For brings together the cream of the mystery world for a feast of reading pleasure, a treasure trove for those new to the genre and those who believe that there is nothing new left to discover."

A Paris All Your Own: Bestselling Women Writers on the City of Light

Editor: Eleanor Brown

2017

Includes an essay 'Investigating Paris' by Cara Black.

"While all of the women writers featured here have written books connected to Paris, their personal stories of the city are wildly different. These Parisian memoirs range from laugh-out-loud funny to wistfully romantic to thoughtfully sombre and reflective. Perfect for armchair travellers and veterans of Parisian pilgrimages alike, readers will delight in these brand-new tales from their most beloved authors."