Cara Black Books In Order

Publication Order of Aimee Leduc Investigations Books

Chronological Order of Aimee Leduc Investigations Books

Publication Order of Kate Rees Books

Publication Order of Akashic Drug Chronicles Books

Publication Order of Anthologies

Cara Black is a resident of San Francisco. She lives with her husband Jun who is a bookseller and their dog. She is best selling author with USA Today and NY Times. In her writing career she has gained recognition for her works. She is a San Francisco Library Laureate and has been nominated three times for the Anthony award because of her criminal investigation novel series featuring Aimee Leduc. She has also been nominated for the Macavity Award.

Her literally works has earned her recognition in other parts of the world. In France, she was awarded the Médaille de la Ville Paris. This award is given as recognition to people who have made great contribution to the culture across nations. She has also received invitations as a guest of honor in various conferences such as the Left Coast Crime and Paris Polar Crime Festival. Her series have seen more than 400,000 copies printed. The books have been printed in German, Hebrew, Spanish, Italian, French, Japanese and Norwegian.

Cara was born in Chicago on November 14, 1951. She has lived in Bay Area of California from the age of five. She went to school at California’s Canada College, Sophia University in Japan and finally San Francisco State University where she graduated with a bachelor’s and master’s degree awards in education.

Before becoming a writer, Black had tried her hand in various other things in life. She was once a preschool teacher before becoming the director of that school. She got her teaching credentials at San Francisco College. Later she became an agent of the federal government funded Head Start Program. She was sent to Chinatown in San Francisco to encourage families living there take their children to school. Each of her jobs was amazing and some of her experiences are recounted in the books. She has also worked as barista in a train station in Basel Switzerland. She was an English teacher in Japan and undertook a study of Buddhism in Dharamsala, Northern India. There was a time she worked as a bar girl in Bangkok, Thailand where her work was to pour drinks only. It was while at Sophia University in Japan that she met her husband Jun. They met after she had completed her study of Chinese history at the university. Apart from being a bookseller, Jun was also an amateur chef and potter.

The setting of all Cara Black’s books is in France. Cara fell in love with French culture when she interacted with some nuns from France who worked in her Catholic run high school. This is where she discovered French literature and instantly fell in love with it. She was particularly enchanted by the works of Romain Gary who was a winner of Prix Goncourt. As a junior in high school, she had become his ardent fan and wrote him a letter. Her idol answered her letter which encouraged her to make her first trip to France. After this trip, she has had many more trips to France. She takes advantage of each trip to discover more about France by visiting new places. While researching for her books, she has been forced to pose as a journalist to enable her get into closed areas.

Black is well known for the character Aimee Leduc who features in all her books. Aimee is a female private investigator operating in Paris. Cara Black has been listed in Elizabeth Lindsay’s second edition of Great Women Mystery Writers. Her first novel was Murder in Marais which won her nomination for the Anthony Award in the best first novel entry. Her third novel got her best novel nomination for the same award. Her great understanding of French culture and history is clearly depicted in her books. She has conducted a lot of research for her works that some people in Paris consider her to be more knowledgeable that they are about their own country.

Her first book was Murder in the Marais. In the book, Aimee Leduc has vowed not to get involved in criminal investigations. She had chosen tech investigation to be her preference. This decision was motivated by the death of her father, a police detective, who died while conducting investigations. This resolve changes after Aimee is approached by a Jewish senior with a job to help a woman at his synagogue, with a highly secretive decoding assignment. Without knowing it, she finds herself on the scent of criminals. After completing her investigations, she heads off to Marais, a part of Paris occupied by Jews, to deliver her report. She finds the client strangled. The murderer had taken time to carve a swastika on her forehead. She joins hands with her partner Rene and starts to unearth the crime. With every move she makes, she finds herself into a tight web of past activities under which more crimes are hidden.

After the Murder in Marais, Cara wrote Murder in Belleville. Belleville is known for its large number of Arab immigrants. Tension is very high among the inhabitants of this section because of the immigration laws they considered to be too strict. The residents start a hunger strike to protest against these laws. Aimee is with Anaïs her old friend. Anaïs is married to the interior minister but is an angry woman. She is angry because her husband has another woman called Sylvie. Anaïs bumps into Sylvie and she wants to confront her. Aimee tries to help her when a car bomb explodes killing Sylvie. At the insistence of Anaïs, Aimee commences an investigation in the explosion. This exposes her to very serious danger as she pursues the terrorists behind the attack. The attack was organized by Islamic fundamentalist who operate secretively in Paris.

Cara has written twelve other books after this. All of them are about homicide investigations by Aimee Leduc. The setting of all her books is in France. This may be explained by her many travels to France. She loves talks to people in Paris who tell her stories about the city and the entire country, which she uses in her novels.

3 Responses to “Cara Black”

1. mike mazva: 1 month ago

   What I especially love about these novels is following the plot with the arrondisment maps in the front. My daughter lived in Neuilly for several years, and I hope in the future I will read about Amiee and Rene stalking those streets in pursuit of les criminelles.

   Reply
2. Patricia C Sowell: 2 years ago

   I have just purchased “Murder in Marais” and begun reading it. I am thoroughly enjoying it! I am looking forward to reading the others in the series.

   Reply
3. Sally A Outen: 2 years ago

   I love her books purchased all of them and hope she writes more. I can even foresee them as tv series

   Reply