Murder Below Montparnasse

An Aimee Leduc Investigation, Book 13

By: Cara Black

Narrated by: Madeleine Lambert

Length: 9 hrs and 59 mins

Publisher's summary

A long-lost Modigliani portrait, a grieving brother’s blood vendetta, a Soviet secret that's been buried for 80 years - Parisian private investigator Aimée Leduc's current case is her most exciting one yet.

When Aimée’s long-term partner and best friend Rene leaves their detective agency for a new job in Silicon Valley, Aimée knows she can handle the extra workload. At least, that what she tells herself...repeatedly.

But all bets are off when Yuri Volodya, a mysterious old Russian man, hires Aimée to protect a painting. By the time she gets to his Montparnasse atelier, the precious painting has already been stolen, leaving Aimée smelling a rat. The next day, Yuri is found tortured to death in his kitchen. To top it all off, it looks like Aimée isn’t the only one looking for the painting. Some very dangerous people are threatening her and her coworkers, and witnesses are dropping like flies. Now Aimée has to find the painting, stop her attackers, and figure out what her long-missing mother, who is on Interpol's most wanted list, has to do with all this - fingers crossed she wasn't Yuri's murderer, despite clues pointing in that direction.

Obviously, Rene doesn't need to worry. Aimée has things under control.

©2013 Cara Black (P)2013 AudioGO

Critic reviews

"[Has] a lengthy, well-developed subplot. Allusions to Modigliani, Picasso, Cocteau, Man Ray, and Duchamp help evoke 1920s Paris." (Publishers Weekly)

Worst Reading Ever

How did the narrator detract from the book?

I could not finish it. The narration was trite, full of voices so false sounding that they belonged in characters in a Disney cartoon.

The Narrator Ruins It

I couldn’t get through this book. The narrator’s impersonations of the different characters is hoaky and so awful to listen to. This book needs to be re-recorded with a better narrator.

Annoying narrator

I did not finish this read because the narrator's voice and her feeble attempts to sound like different characters were so Nothing. I can't say if the story was any good because I just couldn't listen to another word.

Love Cara Black, but narrator ruins it

One of the many reasons I love Cara Black's novels which take place in Paris, is that it brings back wonderful memories and allows me to actually visualize her settings. I spent several months a year in Paris, and had become accustomed to her "in" way of doing things. Another reason was that I liked the mysteries and story line, which in the past were brought to life perfectly by a great narrator, whose French accent and pronunciation were right on. It was like having a mini-French review with each book, and learning more slang. I also learned even more about Paris, which seemed impossible.

Not with this book, however. It still has a great story line and offers great visual insight into Paris haunts, habits and customs, but not pronunciations of the French terms she uses repeatedly in all her books. They are continually mispronounced in French, or pronounced here as one would in English. It is terribly distracting. The French word "frison" is pronounced "freezone" (accent on the last syllable), not "frishin".

The second thing that was irritating about this narrator was that she read so fast! I had to keep checking my iPhone to make sure the speed was set correctly at 1x. It was.

The third in many of the irritating qualities of this narrator was that she could not vocally characterize men. Morbier sounded ridiculous, the young kid intern sounded as if he had a cold, and every other male was cartoonishly voiced. Why change narrators?

In short, this book would be better read than listened to, with this narrator. I don't follow the plot closely due to her hurried mutilations.

Cara--please write more books, but PLEASE go back to the former narrator!!

Mon dieu, quelle disappointment

What disappointed you about Murder Below Montparnasse?

Bland story with a particularly weak read. Sorry, but these characters, even when somewhat differentiated, came off as very cliche as an audiobook. I wonder if this is the case where the written word would have been better

What was the most interesting aspect of this story? The least interesting?

It isn't obvious whodunnit and the setting is of course interesting, Paris loving francophiles are surely the target audience here and I consider myself one.

If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from Murder Below Montparnasse?

The whole silicon valley angle is atrocious, it is so trite that I cringed through each stereotypical moment.

Narration horrible!

What would have made Murder Below Montparnasse better?

This is the first time I have noticed the narration of any audible book to be distracting, and this one is horrible. I don't care about how the French is pronounced, but there is something very inappropriately sing-song about this narration. At first I thought the author might be reading the narration, but this is a professional? I think this is one I will have to return and buy the kindle version. Sadness. I am guessing the story is okay, thus the 3 stars, but don't get this in audible format.

Would you be willing to try another book from Cara Black? Why or why not?

Yes, she is a good writer

What didn’t you like about Madeleine Lambert’s performance?

It's singsongy, fast, weird affect etc.

What reaction did this book spark in you? Anger, sadness, disappointment?

Anger, how to ruin a perfectly good story with bad narration

Any additional comments?

You have been warned.

New narrator is nowhere near as good.

Wow, I got this book for free, but if I paid for it would you go back to the previous reader? Freaking horrible.

Great story though.

Forced myself to finish

I am listening to Aimee Leduc series in order otherwise I would have returned it. Narration was terrible and I rated the story not good but difficult to know if it was because it was so hard to listen. I wanted to quit all the way through.

Bad narration

What did you like best about Murder Below Montparnasse? What did you like least?

As usual, I love the story and the characters, and the sense of place. I have read all of the series.

Did the plot keep you on the edge of your seat? How?

Yes.

How did the narrator detract from the book?

This is the first negative narration review I have ever given. After listening to about 10% I decided to forgo anymore narration and just stick with reading. The narrator did not do voices well and her French was abysmal. I found it very distracting and unsatisfying. After deciding to do this, I opened the info page and checked and found that the narrator was different from the first 10 or so. She really brought Aimee to life and represented Paris and the many characters well.

Sorry, guys. But casting is way off base. This narration is too American. I don’t have at hand the name (s) of previous narra

This narration sounds too American middle class. No European flavor. No nuance. I feel as if I should get a refund. Could not listen beyond the first few minutes .