Cara Black mysteries - How do you rank them?
 

So I just finished Murder at the Marais which I really enjoyed, but read several comments in various posts of people not liking Murder in Belleville (which I think is the 2nd one).
So those who have read the series - is it important to read them in order? In the grand scheme of a growing book list, how you would rank them in terms of which ones are worth reading first?
thanks!

I haven't read the books but maybe most people can't 'identify' with Belleville..?

It's funny that I saw this today. She's speaking at my local library tomorrow and I plan to go. I've only read the Marais, and working on Clichy now and not enjoying it quite as much. It may just be my own distraction with work that's impacting my enjoyment though. I don't think it matters which order you read them.

I've read and enjoyed them all but Marais is my favorite.
Good to see you grasshopper, Say hello to Cara for me!1

Mimi, I will! Do you know her?

I haven't read all of them, but enough to think there's no specific order in which they need to be read. I liked the Belleville one a lot, though I enjoyed Marais best of all. I've known Cara for quite a few years and know a fair bit about how she came to write these, and her own story is as interesting as the books themselves. So I guess I read them with some positive prejudice. To me, they're not great literature, but fun and entertaianing and a way to draw my mind back to various parts of Paris, which is always a treat.

Sounds like it might be worth leaving a "gap" after reading the first to read the second.

I've readthree or four of them, and not in order- I don't think that's very important.

I agree with StCirq, they're not fantastically written or anything, but they're fun, they're quite redolent of the patch she sets them on and, anyway, I want to live in a flat on the Isle St Louis:)

I've read them too and they are fun and easy to read..a beach book.

Geez Sheila, you already have a whole house in France and now you want another place in Paris. Maybe I'll get the paris place and we can switch around!!!

Jody, That would be splendid to visit Sheila in Paris :)

The Parade magazine that comes with my Boston Globe recommends the book for summer reading.

For what it's worth.

I'm an avid reader of mysteries, particularly procedurals, read one Cara Black and was singularly unimpressed. Tried a second and gave up after a few chapters.

Why bother with Cara Black when you can read Ruth Rendell (a.k.a Barbara Vine)?

Sorry to sound snobish....

I love Paris, so I tried Murder in the Bastille and just could not get into it. I didn't like her style of writing. I tried.

We're tlking about Cara because all the books take place in a different arrondissement in Paris and following in Leo Malet's shoes.

Cara here...Mimi just sent me this link and I had no idea people were discussing Aimée Leduc's investigations! I just got back from a research trip in Paris checking details for Aimée's 8th investigation...hard to believe, I know. Meanwhile Murder on the Ile Saint-Louis came out in March and I hope some of you will try it, even if you had trouble with the earlier books. Hopefully, my writings improving! Most of the books in the series take place in off the beaten track areas of Paris and will interest you. Though Ile Saint-Louis seems full of foreigners these days. And to answer the question, it's not important what order you read them.

My heart is still in the Marais after staying there, so I need to correct what I wrote. My favorite is the latest Murder on the Ile Saint-Louis. I felt like I was with aimee when she's in the Seine.

Thank you. One thing people might not know is that each of the books were inspired by a real event or from a real story - either someone I met, an article in Le Monde, an old photo I discovered at a flea market, a friend's conversation. There's a kernel of truth whether from history (the German Occupation in WW2, the Indochinese war, Immigration issues in Belleville, 70's radicals) or current day Paris (I mean the mid 1990's when the books take place.) Murder on the Ile Saint-Louis came from a dinner conversation in Paris with friends whose neighbor across the small street discovered an abandoned newborn. The story amazed me. Later I met the woman who found the baby and heard first hand her struggle trying to adopt the infant. And about the old Napoleonic code still governing occurances like this.

Have not read Cara Black but will get a book and am really looking forward to a new author. Ruth Rendell--snobbish?--huh?--very good psychological thrillers. If you don't like to read get the Detective Lynley/Barbara Havers movies. They're excellent. Other British mystery writers I like are Elizabeth George and Laurie R. King. King writes about a young heiress who marries Sherlock Holmes and slueths with him all over the place---start with The Beekeeper's Apprentice. Any suggestions for other British writers in this same vein that I could read. Cheers, BMK

I am DEFINITELY a fan! I rent an apartment in Paris twice a year and usually, every March, the most recent Cara Black has become available in paperback for me to read and enjoy while I am there. It is my "guilty pleasure" as the other books in my stash of novels are in French and require some effort. I have read them in order, and I think it does add -- as Aimee's personal character and story develop.The geography is also fascinating, whether it's an area I know well or not at all.
Jess
Jess