Coq au vin: a Nannette Hayes novel

In Booklist's last Mystery Showcase [BKL Apr 15 98], 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

African-American saxophonist Nanette Hayes lives a life that's like good jazz: it's full of soul, and she makes it up as she goes along while somehow keeping it all together. She believes she owes something to her Aunt Viv, who taught her how to enjoy life and bounce back from trouble. So when, at the start of this brilliant second outing (after Rhode Island Red), Nan is asked to hunt down the wayward Viv and hand over a substantial inheritance from Nan's father, she leaps at the opportunity. Besides, it gives her an excuse to go back to Paris, her only constant love. Once there, Nan sobs each time she passes a landmark. Nan's tale is spun craftily, taking readers on a very personal tour of the city that is inextricably linked to her soul. The search for Viv is a continuous riff, but it soon becomes secondary to the story of Andre, an expatriate and fellow street musician working on his accent, his music and Nan's affections. Before long, Nan's feelings for Andre surpass even her passion for Paris and the two play a mean duet with their instruments and their bodies. Nan's charm and daring allow her and Andre to navigate the world of expatriate jazz artists, who, they discover, are tied into swindles, robbery, betrayal and murder. Things end on a sad note, as Nan must head back to the States, having discovered that neither Viv nor her own relationship with Andre are quite what she'd hoped for. This is a top-notch mystery, engaging throughout and quite moving at the end. Foreign rights sold in France and Germany. (Feb.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

Nanette Hayes's mother is practically in tears. She's had a couple of cryptic distress signals from Nanette's Aunt Viv in Paris, and she knows the secret inheritance of $10,000 she's never turned over to her despised sister-in-law could be a lifesaver. Is there any way Nan could take a week off from her teaching job and fly over to the City of Light to look for her raffish aunt? You bet there is, says Nan, whose 'teaching job' is a myth designed to keep her mother purring, and who knows the anonymous crowds she blows the sax for on Big Apple streets won't miss her for a week. So Nan, fortified by gallons of in-flight Veuve Clicquot and drunk with the romantic possibilities of a city she hasn't seen since she was a girl, settles down in Vivian Hayes's dingy hotel and begins her search. It takes much less than a week for her to realize that she's got about as much chance of finding her walkabout aunt as finding the adorable little bistros she dined in the last time she saw Paris. Luckily, she's taken in hand by Andre, a fine mulatto street-violinist from Detroit, who fills up the hours she's not finding Aunt Viv with diverse cultural experiences, etc. Everything's going swimmingly'Nan's made contact with a promisingly grungy gangster who's been questioned in the recent death of another American woman, she's tied Vivian into a 20-year-old murder, she's getting some great meals and sex'until the last thirty pages, when Carter (Rhode Island Red, 1997) suddenly has the nerve to pretend she's been plotting a mystery all along. Nan's second case works less well as a whodunit than as a nostalgic tour of black Paris, and a salute to Black History Month.

/*Starred Review*/ 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. ((Reviewed January 1 & 15, 1999)) Copyright 2000 Booklist Reviews

African-American saxophonist Nanette Hayes lives a life that's like good jazz: it's full of soul, and she makes it up as she goes along while somehow keeping it all together. She believes she owes something to her Aunt Viv, who taught her how to enjoy life and bounce back from trouble. So when, at the start of this brilliant second outing (after Rhode Island Red), Nan is asked to hunt down the wayward Viv and hand over a substantial inheritance from Nan's father, she leaps at the opportunity. Besides, it gives her an excuse to go back to Paris, her only constant love. Once there, Nan sobs each time she passes a landmark. Nan's tale is spun craftily, taking readers on a very personal tour of the city that is inextricably linked to her soul. The search for Viv is a continuous riff, but it soon becomes secondary to the story of Andre, an expatriate and fellow street musician working on his accent, his music and Nan's affections. Before long, Nan's feelings for Andre surpass even her passion for Paris and the two play a mean duet with their instruments and their bodies. Nan's charm and daring allow her and Andre to navigate the world of expatriate jazz artists, who, they discover, are tied into swindles, robbery, betrayal and murder. Things end on a sad note, as Nan must head back to the States, having discovered that neither Viv nor her own relationship with Andre are quite what she'd hoped for. This is a top-notch mystery, engaging throughout and quite moving at the end. Foreign rights sold in France and Germany. (Feb.) Copyright 1999 Publishers Weekly Reviews