Coq Au Vin

Rating:
Summary: Original and Funny
Review: Charlotte Carter's absorbing Coq au Vin is a witty, erotic and moving love song to Paris and its "glamorous black past" of jazz musicians, singers, and artists. Sax-playing New Yorker Nanette Hayes is on a mission in her beloved Paris to find her missing free-spirited aunt. Nanette finds hot sex and romance first, and big trouble second, confirming her fear that she brings doom to those she cares about. While the mystery is slight, Coq au Vin's romantic comedy is the real deal, and so is the serious heartbreak.

Rating:
Summary: Missing In Action.
Review: Here is a book that is quick on a good evening and won't totally bog the reader with a lot of filler. Nanette Hayes, on request of her mother, goes in search for her idol, Aunt Vivian, who seem to have left a couple of cryptic messages with mom. On route of searching, she is derailed by playing sax on street corners, meeting her male antagonist, who will be her lover, dirty dives, and a hotel room where her aunt resided. A duffel bag, one hundred dollars in a jacket pocket, and a picture of a old jazz musician puts her and her new conquest on the search, and somehow leads her to the missing relative, along with the drama and danger that comes along. Straight to the point and humerous, Nanette is a heroine that will charm you and a story that will keep you turning the pages.

Rating:
Summary: Unique main character and setting sets this one apart
Review: This fast-moving yet thoughtful mystery is refreshing on a number of levels, in particular because the crime solver isn't a middle-aged white guy who cracks wise about the same topics as every other detective in American crime fiction. Other plusses are the Paris setting and the interesting peek into the world of black musicians over the past several decades. Give this one a whirl; it's worth your time.