Friends of Montclair Library

Paris’s narrow alleys, ancient catacombs and layers of history lend themselves to mysteries. Mystery authors like Cara Black (who will speak at the Montclair Library on Tuesday, March 1, at 6:30) incorporate Paris’s distinctive neighborhoods, art and food culture into their stories for tales with a uniquely Parisian flavor.

To get you in the mood for Black’s visit, here are 12 dark books set in the City of Light:

Murder on the Champ de Mars by Cara Black (MYS BLACK) – Detective Aimee Leduc has her hands full running her detective agency and caring for a baby. Her investigations get personal when a poor French Gypsy boy insists his dying mother has an important secret about Aimee’s father’s murder. When the mother — too sick to leave on her own — disappears from the hospital, Aimee must find her before the medication keeping her alive runs out. Part of Black’s Aimee Leduc series.

Murder on the Eiffel Tower by Claude Izner (MYS IZNER) – “The brand-new, shiny Eiffel Tower is the pride and glory of the 1889 World Exposition. But one sunny afternoon, as visitors are crowding the viewing platforms, a woman collapses and dies on this great Paris landmark. Can a bee sting really be the cause of death? Or is there a more sinister explanation?” (Amazon) Part of Izner’s series of mysteries featuring crime-solving bookseller Victor Legris.

The Bones of Paris: A Novel of Suspense by Laurie R. King (MYS KING) – Paris, France: September 1929. Private investigator Harris Stuyvesant, on the hunt for a missing 22-year-old woman from Boston, must find a killer hiding in the Theatre du Grand-Guignol in Montmartre.

Paris Match: A Stone Barrington Novel by Stuart Woods (MYS WOODS) – “Stone Barrington has returned to Paris to attend to some business concerns, and finds himself embroiled in high-stakes trouble on both sides of the pond. Though Stone is no stranger to peril, never before has he faced threats from so many directions at once.” (Publisher)

The Grave Gourmet by Alexander Campion (MYS CAMPION) (not at Montclair) – Parisian policewoman Capucine LeTellier plunges into a uniquely Parisian affair of gastronomic delights and bureaucratic intrigue to close a case that could make her career… or kill it. Campion has other LeTellier books set in France as well.

The Bar on the Seine by Georges Simenon (MYS SIMENON) – In this novel from 1931, prolific author Simenon’s Inspector Maigret must visit a prisoner he arrested and bear the news that his reprieve has been refused and he will be executed at dawn. But when the condemned man tells Maigret a story, his investigations lead him to the Guinguette a Deux Sous, a bar by the River Seine. (Google Books)

Stealing Mona Lisa: A Mystery by Carson Morton (MYS MORTON) – “What happens when you mix a Parisian street orphan, a hot-tempered Spanish forger, a beautiful American pickpocket, an unloved wife, and one priceless painting?” (Amazon)

Long Lost by Harlan Coben (MYS COBEN) – Myron Bolitar hasn’t heard from Terese Collins since their torrid affair ended ten years ago, so her desperate phone call from Paris catches him completely off guard. Now a suspect in the murder of her ex-husband in Paris, Terese has nowhere else to turn for help. Myron heeds the call but then a startling piece of evidence turns the entire case upside down.

Paris Noir edited by Aurelien Masson (electronic resource) – Twelve short stories by French authors, twelve points of view, twelve neighborhoods and twelve pieces of the same puzzle.

The Golem of Paris by Jonathan Kellerman (MYS KELLERMAN) – Haunted by family revelations and the memory of a woman named Mai, LAPD detective Jacob Lev stumbles across an unsolved murder case that takes him to Paris and brings the disparate halves of his life into startling collision.

The Bookseller: The First Hugo Marston Novel by Mark Pryor (MYS PRYOR) (not at Montclair) – When his bookseller friend, a former Holocaust survivor and Nazi hunter, is kidnapped and other booksellers are murdered, Hugo Marston, head of security for the U.S. embassy in Paris, discovers a shocking conspiracy.

The Chalk Circle Man by Fred Vargas (MYS VARGAS) – When blue chalk circles begin to appear on the pavement in neighborhoods around Paris, detective Commissaire Adamsberg studies each new circle and the increasingly bizarre objects they contain. (Publisher)