From Black's interview with Molly Odintz at CrimeReads:
Aimée Leduc’s mother was absent for much of the series; in your latest, she’s now returned to Paris to form a relationship with her daughter and granddaughter, but still struggles with domesticity. What’s your inspiration for her character, and what needs to happen (without giving anything away) to repair Aimee and her mother’s fraught connection?The Page 69 Test: Murder at the Lanterne Rouge.
Aimée and her mother, an American who may or may not have ties to the CIA and left Aimée’s father to raise her by himself, have a fragile relationship. Aimée doesn’t really know her, so this is new territory for both of them.
I was afraid readers might think my mother had been a spy–she’d turn in her grave if that happened—so I wrote a reader’s note as a way to explanation that Sidney Leduc is not based on my own mother. It’s funny what conclusions people will come to! Aimée’s mother Sydney is a woman who, for Aimée’s safety, left her in the care of her father when she was put in prison and stayed out of her life to protect her. Aimée has a hard time accepting that so...[read on]
My Book, the Movie: Murder at the Lanterne Rouge.
The Page 69 Test: Murder below Montparnasse.
The Page 69 Test: Murder in Pigalle.
My Book, The Movie: Murder in Pigalle.
My Book, The Movie: Murder on the Champ de Mars.
Writers Read: Cara Black (June 2018).
--Marshal Zeringue