Huguette

In this vivid standalone from Black (Murder at La Villette), a traumatized teenager reinvents herself in post-WWII Paris. Huguette endures a string of heartrending betrayals, beginning with her father pimping her out to a Nazi officer in exchange for protection for his shop during the war. Then, at 17, the orphaned young woman has become pregnant after being assaulted by a Nazi officer and is forced by cruel nuns to give her child up for adoption. Devastated, starving, and homeless, Huguette lands in prison for stealing money in 1945, where she’s helped by the kind but unproven young policeman Claude Leduc (grandfather to Aimée Leduc, the heroine of Black’s long-running detective series). After fleeing and changing her identity, Huguette works for strong-willed film director Louis de Jouvenal, who hires her to help trade supplies on the black market. After outwitting American GIs, corrupt French police, and vicious gang members, Huguette finally finds legitimate employment and tracks down the German officer who raped her. At times, Black’s plot tilts into melodrama, but her pacing is fleet and she renders the textures and social mores of postwar Paris with aplomb. Historical mystery fans will root for Huguette all the way to the novel’s bittersweet end. (Dec.)