As a result of this, Aimée left investigative fieldwork and is now limiting her expertise to corporate security in partnership with a computer hacker, Renée. Business is suffering, so she reluctantly takes a commission from an elderly rabbi. Her job is to decode an encrypted photograph and give it to Lili Stein.

When she finally completes the project, Aimée realizes she has a fifty year-old photograph of SS officers in a familiar Parisian café. She hurries to Stein’s residence in the historic Jewish neighborhood of the Marais and discovers Lili Stein dead, with a swastika carved into her forehead.

Inspector Morbier, an old friend of Aimée’s father, is the first on the scene. During an interview with her the next day he enlists her cooperation with the promise of sharing some information. If Aimée had not received an envelope containing the much-needed sum of 50,000 francs from the temple to retain her to find Stein’s killer, she would not have agreed to Morbier’s deal.

The style of the swastika leads Aimée to a rabid neo-Nazi organization. She spends some time undercover in this organization where she balances current politics, involving trade and immigration quotas, with old war crimes. This is a dangerous and unforgiving game in which she must involve many older residents of the Marais who would prefer to leave the horrible realities of the death camps in the past.

Black has an incredible feeling for the Paris of contrasts and it is this obvious life experience that makes them so meaningful. Vividly, she places occupied Paris within the present day city. This permits her to artfully create awareness in the reader of the many historical and richly textured layers the city projects.

The author’s characters are well defined, invoking strong emotions, and the dialogue is appropriate to the situation and entertaining. Anecdotes are cleverly used to enhance the feeling that the reader is there. Although the pacing of the novel is non-stop, Black varies this breakneck speed by carefully slowing it down and revealing more about her characters every now and then.

Cara Black is a real find and this reviewer looks forward to her next Aimée Leduc adventure.

--Thea Davis