Hooper Taliaferro, previously working for the U.S. government in Africa, is now running a small art gallery in Paris, partly stocked by native crafts Mary Finney sends him from he Congo. Dr. Finney is intended to speak on her medical research in Paris, and somewhat improbably also is being honored by the Surete for her detective work (only 3 amateur cases??). When Nicole, the chanteuse/manager of the mildly risque Flea Club (nightclub) is murdered, Dr. Finney decides to solve the case largely as an armchair exercise, making Hooper go back and describe the club regulars --a stereotype (of the time) homosexual art collector, an upper class male gigolo, his current and ex-lovers, the daughter of his current lover, in whom Hooper is taking an interest with the encourage of her mother, the singer's musician accompanist in whom the art collector is taking an interest, etc. Competently done, but a bit self-consciously sordid. The mother/daughter pair resemble an older worldly woman (Barbara Mason) and a young heiress in The Smell of Money, though in that story the two are not related. ( )

murder in French nite club