Easy to follow, but the new mom/working mom card gets really old. This thought process is good throughout the novel, but the unnecessary risks, incorrect wardrobe choices, and poor time management are aggravating.

Aimee Leduc is the ultimate working mother with her Vespa baby seat and Hermes diaper bag. Once again, Aimee breaks her promise to stick to computer security and goes off to help a friend whose nephew has just been killed because of an accountant's secret notebook. Can she find the notebook and still get to baby swim? A working mother needs help and people from her past step up to assist. Another delightful adventure with detective Leduc!

As with all of Black’s books, I sat down one evening, started reading Murder on the Left Bank, and didn’t stop until I had gotten to the last page. Juggling the demands of her detective agency and her baby, Aimée reluctantly takes on a bewildering case for a good friend. A missing dossier and the suspicious death of the notebook’s courier digs up reminders of the dangerous syndicate that murdered Aimée’s father. Black doesn’t mess around in her 18th Aimée Leduc book and it doesn’t take long for the tension to build in this one. Reluctantly, our heroine finds herself having to rely on her godfather, her child’s father and her enigmatic mother to protect the life of her baby.

As usual, a most satisfying read with the added charm of Paris, Aimée’s vintage wardrobe and the quirky cast of characters that make up her friends and family.

Although Cara Black's series has been of high quality, this entry is disappointing. Paris still serves as a wonderful backdrop, but the story is not very compelling; perhaps it's been told once too often and relies too often on coincidence and perfect timing. More concerning, though, are Aimee's relationships. While we can accept her long-established embittered relationship with her mother, her continuing treatment of Rene seems exploitative. Her relationship with Chloe, however, appears to be much too casual. We know that Aimee is obsessed with her work, but Black's portrayal of her remembering about Chloe in bursts, rather than thinking of her as her first priority, does not ring true. Although she's a single mother, she constantly puts herself in danger, calling on Chloe's father only when she's desperately in need of moving the baby to a safe place. Hopefully, this series will get back on track in the next volume.