Praise for the Aimée Leduc series:“The buzz . . . is partly about her heroine’s hip, next-generation, cutting-edge investigations and partly about Paris, a setting of unrivaled charm.”—Houston Chronicle“If the cobblestones could talk, they might tell a tale as haunting as the one Cara Black spins.” —The New York Times Book Review“Will have readers on pins and needles.”—San Francisco Chronicle“One of the best new writers in the field today.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)“Conveys vividly those layers of history that make the stones of Paris sing for so many of us.”—Chicago Tribune“With its sights, sounds, and colorful past, it’s a particularly eventful and involving Paris visit.”—Los Angeles Times

Spirited Aimée Leduc, a private investigator based in Paris, has been introduced to the Cao Dai temple by her partner, René, who urges her to learn to meditate as a counterbalance to her frenetic lifestyle. A Vietnamese nun asks her for a favor—to hand over a check and bring a package back to the temple. But this act of kindness ends in a stranger’s death and leaves her with a bullet wound in the arm, a check for 50,000 francs and a trove of ancient jade artifacts whose provenance is a mystery.The French secret service, a group of veterans of the war in Indochina, some wealthy ex-colonials, and contending international oil companies all claim the jade. They will stop at nothing to gain possession of it. And the nun has disappeared.Aimée has promised to avoid danger, but it continues to seek her out.