Cara Black’s riveting 19th installment in her New York Times bestselling Parisian detective series entangles private investigator Aimee Leduc in a dangerous web of international spycraft, post-colonial Franco-African politics, and neighborhood secrets in Paris’s 12th arrondissement.

Parisian private investigator Aimee Leduc is about to go onstage to deliver the keynote address at a tech conference that is sure to secure Leduc Detective some much-needed business contracts when she gets an emergency phone call from her daughter’s playgroup: Aimee’s own mother, who was supposed to pick Chloe up, never showed. Abandoning her hard-won speaking gig, Aimee rushes to get Chloe, annoyed that her mother has let her down yet again.

But as Aimee and Chloe are leaving the playground, Aimee witnesses the body of a homeless woman being wheeled away from the neighboring convent, where nuns run a soup kitchen. The last person anyone saw the dead woman talking to was Aimee’s mother, who has vanished. Trying to figure out what happened to Sydney Leduc, Aimee tracks down the dead woman’s possessions, which include a huge amount of cash. What did Sydney stumble into? Is she in trouble?