Mystery writer Cara Black finds plots in the shadows of Paris

Cara Black speaks to the Bee Book Club Thursday March 20, 2008

Cara Black was grinding coffee beans in the kitchen of her San Francisco apartment when the phone rang at 9 a.m. Her dog Kipper, a white coton de Tulear, started barking.

There were some questions to ask the novelist, whose eight-book mystery series has steadily gained critical momentum since the first title appeared in 1999. The stories are set in Paris in the 1990s and star Aimée Leduc, a tall, spiky-haired private investigator who lives with a bichon frisé named Miles Davis, sports a lizard tattoo, and favors high heels, knock-off couture and Chanel No. 5. Oh, and she's lookin' for love, but – like so many other women in their late 20s to early 30s – has a frustrating time finding the right man. Of course, it doesn't help that Aimée's fiancé has his throat cut at the beginning of her latest outing, "Murder in the Rue de Paradis" (Soho Press, $24, 288 pages).

Aimée and René Friant, a dwarf who drives a 1964 Citroën DS, are partners in a computer security business on the Right Bank. René is focused on the client list – a company needs a firewall for its computer system – but Aimée consistently finds herself in the midst of larger, much bloodier cases.

"Aimée does a lot of things I would like to do but never will," Black said. "I wouldn't climb over roofs while wearing high heels, but she can. I'm afraid of heights and don't wear high heels very often. One of Aimée's qualities is loyalty to her friends, and that's important for me, too."

Aimée's an iconoclast, for sure, but don't be fooled by appearances. Black's character is no ditzy party girl, but an energetic, dedicated pro who gets involved with serious stuff – Islamic fundamentalists, protests and riots, subway bombings, murders, kidnappings and, in "Paradis," a deadly jihadist assassin.

Inspired by a visit to Paris

But enough about Aimée. What about Black? Well, she's 56, a former preschool teacher who began writing the first Aimée book when she was 38. Her husband of 30-plus years, Jun Ishimuru, owns and runs Foto-Grafix, a specialty bookstore in the Cartoon Art Museum on Mission Street. Their son, 18, is at a Florida college.

P.S.: Black reads French better than she speaks it, she admitted.

So, how did she conceive the "Aimée Leduc Investigation" series? In 1984, Black's travels took her again to Paris. A friend there, Sara, narrated a story about how her mother had survived the Nazi occupation of Paris in World War II while hiding in the Marais district.

A flourishing tourist destination today, the Marais was long characterized by the many huge, deteriorating buildings that originally were villas built by the aristocracy beginning in the 16th century. By the early 1900s, the area had become home to a community of European Jews working in the garment industry. Naturally, it was high on the Nazis' hate list when they stormed the city.

"I went back to the Marais in 1994 and that story came back to me," Black said. "It was 50 years after the war, but many of those people who lived through it were still alive. I wanted to explore that, because they wouldn't be with us much longer."

The result was "Murder in the Marais," in which Aimée uncovers a neo-Nazi group while investigating the murder of an elderly Jewish woman.

For years, Black has launched biannual two-week research trips to Paris for the sake of authenticity and context in her fiction. The visits typically involve interviewing police contacts and female PIs, networking, examining documents in the National Archives and "walking around and being a sponge, discovering wonderful little streets and neighborhoods. I find my best things when I get lost."

One contact she made last fall was "Julian, who works for the Paris Metro. He has all the keys to the locked doors and took me down to the closed, disused Metro stations. There are still old posters hanging up from the 1930s, and graffiti (from the era). It was very cool."

About the writer:

• Call The Bee's Allen Pierleoni, (916) 321-1128.