Coq au vin

In Booklist's last Mystery Showcase, we commented on how Paris as a setting for crime fiction seemed lost in a time warp. The reason for this phenomenon, we hypothesized, was Georges Simenon's Old World detective Maigret. While the rest of the continent was being invaded by a new breed of hard-boiled heroes for the post^-cold war world, the Maigret novels"deep identification with Paris acted as a protective shield around the city, keeping out the new kids. No more--not with the arrival in Paris of Nanette Hayes, street saxophonist and amateur sleuth, Grace Jones look-alike, and about as un-Maigret as it's possible to be. When a desperate telegram arrives from Nanette's idol, her long-missing aunt Viv, Nan heads off to Paris, Viv's last known address. It's a labor of love for Francophile Nan, who follows Viv's trail deep into the Paris underworld, where her high-living aunt once hung out in the glory days of le jazz hot. Playing her sax at Metro stations to make ends meet, Nanette encounters another expatriate horn player, Andre from Detroit, and the two of them improvise their own duets, musical and otherwise. Carter, who introduced Nanette in Rhode Island Red (1997), has an incredibly hot property here: Nanette Hayes may be the most charismatic crime fiction heroine to appear in the last decade; when she plays"Lover Man"at the Odeon Metro stop, it's as if Maigret never existed. Throw in Carter's jazz history^-drenched plot and her terrific feel for incorporating setting into the action, and you have a superbly entertaining novel. There's only one problem: as the book ends, Nanette is going home to New York. Get this girl back to Paris quick. Bill Ott
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