Book Review: The City of Blood by Frédérique Molay

Rating:

the city of bloodIn “The City of Blood ”, the third book in “A Paris Homicide Mystery” series, Frédérique Molay made me fall in love with Nico Sirsky once again. It also made me miss Paris so much and wished to visit Parc de la Villette again.

Those who read the first two books, “The 7th Woman ” and “Crossing the Line (Paris Homicide)” already know that Frédérique Molay can give the writers of CSI and all police procedurals shows a run for their money. In “The City of Blood ”, Ms. Molay channels “Bones”, the Fox hit series about forensic anthropology.

Unearthing a human skeleton in the first archeological dig of modern art at the Parc de la Villette propelled Chief of Police Nico Sirsky and his team rush to the park and museum complex.

With TV cameras and the public as eyewitnesses of the event, the pressure is on Nico Sirsky to find the identity of the victim and the killer at the same time though the statute of limitation might have passed.

Then out of the blue, two more homicides happen in La Villette within a day of each other. It is highly likely that the killer will strike again in 24 hours; and thus, putting Nico and his team on a race with the clock.

The mystery aspect of the book will keep the readers on the edge of their seats; yet, it is Frédérique Molay’s stunning sense of physical details that make everything come alive! The book transported me to Paris – the sight, the sound, the smell; in my mind’s eye, I was in the French capital. Such is the power of Frédérique Molay’s words.

And because I read the English translation, I also have to commend the translator, Jeffrey Zuckerman. I might be reading English words but I also hear the lyrical lilt of the French language in the translation.

One last note: though I am almost sure that Frédérique Molay is not thinking of becoming a spokesperson of French tourism, she might as well be because her descriptions of the Paris locale are so informative I will not be surprised if she gets quoted in travel books.

The The City of Blood is Rated M for Mature due to violence and some sexual content.

DESCRIPTION

When a major Parisian modern art event gets unexpected attention on live TV, Chief of Police Nico Sirsky and his team of elite crime fighters rush to La Villette park and museum complex.

There, renowned artist Samuel Cassian is inaugurating the first archeological dig of modern art, twenty-seven years after burying the leftovers of a banquet. In front of reporters from around the world, excavators uncover a skeleton. Could it be the artist’s own son?

And does that death have anything to do with the current string of nightclub murders by the “Paris Butcher”? On the site of the French capital’s former slaughterhouses, the investigation takes Nico and France’s top criminal investigation division from artists’ studios to autopsy theaters and nightclubs in hopes of tracking down the murderer who has turned this Paris park into a city of blood.