Éric Besson, a lawyer in Paris’s 13th arrondissement, is visited by a mysterious old man. The elderly gentleman has made his way to Besson's office with two things: an oxygen tank that keeps him alive and an old notebook. It is the latter that is of interest to Besson as it purportedly contains information the man has collected over decades of work. It turns out he is an accountant who has helped many dirty cops launder money they obtained illegally.

Besson is tasked with getting this notebook, a final confession of its owner, into the hands of the proper authorities. Regrettably, Besson's courier, his own nephew Marcus, is attacked and killed en route to La Proc, Paris's chief prosecuting attorney. The notebook is gone, and Besson has only one person he trusts to whom he turns: private investigator Aimée Leduc.

"I so thoroughly enjoyed spending time in the different regions of Paris in MURDER ON THE LEFT BANK... These novels serve as both terrific Parisian mysteries and the best guide map to this remarkable city you will find."

Aimée is interested for many reasons, not the least of which is that her own father may be named in this notebook. He was killed in an explosion during an investigation years earlier and was not around to defend himself about the whisperings that he may have been on the take himself. As a result, Aimée stopped her own career path and took over his investigation agency. The year is 1999, but his death still feels like it happened yesterday, and she will do anything to keep his reputation intact.

Even though Aimée does not fully trust Besson, she takes on the case because of what the notebook could allegedly do to the Paris police force if it’s made public. She begins by tracing the route that Marcus took on the way to deliver the notebook. All she is able to find is that he received a phone call from an unknown individual that caused him to divert his original path, resulting in his death and the loss of the notebook.

However, there are some very bad people who do not want Aimée to ever find the notebook. As other allies of hers begin to turn up dead when she gets close to information that may lead her to it, Aimée begins to fear for her own life and those of her agency associates. Her closest colleague, fellow investigator René, is all in for helping Aimée, but even he begins to feel how near they are to danger and peril with each step they take. Besson himself goes into hiding, leaving Aimée completely on her own.

Things hit way too close to home when the daughter of one of Aimée's friends is abducted by a mysterious woman. The child is soon found unharmed and next to the dead body of the apparently homeless woman who took her. It is not that someone paid this crazy lady to steal a child that leaves Aimée so unsettled, but that the girl was wearing her own daughter Chloe's hoodie at the time, making Chloe the intended victim.

The criminal underworld group known as The Hand seems to be responsible for all the dangerous pitfalls placed in Aimée’s way. Even with the assistance of her father's old colleague, Morbier, she is still unable to stay ahead of this deadly criminal empire. Readers will be breathless right up to the moment Aimée finds the notebook and even more surprised once she reads its contents --- information for which many would kill to keep from ever being revealed.

I so thoroughly enjoyed spending time in the different regions of Paris in MURDER ON THE LEFT BANK, the 18th installment in Cara Black’s long-running series. These novels serve as both terrific Parisian mysteries and the best guide map to this remarkable city you will find.