Death in the City of Light: The Serial Killer of Nazi-Occupied Paris

The book begins in 1944, in the upscale 16th arrondissement of Paris, a city under siege by the Germans. It is the time of The holocaust! There is black putrid smoke escaping from a chimney. A neighbor calls the police after the stench becomes overwhelming, but when the police arrive to investigate, they find something quite unexpected. It is a scene of mass murder and bodies are burning. Dr. Marcel Petiot, the owner of the building, was rumored to be in the French resistance but he has a checkered past. He disappeared shortly after the discovery of the bodies. The investigation into the mass murders is hampered by the nature of the times with the German occupation. The death and disappearance of many, for either criminal or religious reasons, was commonplace, so, although, Dr. Petiot aroused the suspicions of many, he was largely ignored. The Nazis routinely kidnapped, imprisoned, tortured, and/or murdered, anyone they deemed dangerous to the regime. The court case appeared to be sloppily handled and mismanaged but one has to keep in mind that it took place shortly after the liberation of Paris and the crimes were committed during the German occupation which made the evidence collection and witness interview process, more cumbersome than it normally would have been. The scope of the crime and the madness surrounding it, coupled with the inept handling of the investigation, at the time, with the war still raging in Europe, made it a monumental effort for the police force to solve it and for the author to research. It is obvious that he has done an enormous amount of work compiling the information and has included an abundance of footnotes to back it up. Still it was hard to follow, at times. It was, nevertheless, a good mystery, making me question if it could really be true because the crimes were so heinous. If it didn't get so bogged down in details, it would have held my interest more, since it kept me guessing; did he or didn’t he? It wasn’t until the last two dozen pages that I was enlightened as to whether or not the main character was guilty or innocent. At times, the writing style seemed confusing. The message was often unclear and redundant, and the reading became tedious. A descriptive character list, someplace at the back of the book and a time line to follow for each character, to make the book easier to follow, would have been helpful. The unknown names of places and people and the plethora of foreign titles and details, made it even more perplexing. Some of the episodes seemed to be repeated or were so similar that it appeared that way. Since this was an Advanced Reader's Copy, perhaps many of these issues were corrected in the final version. I did not care for the cover which features some kind of a creature overlooking the city. Rather than looking scholarly, as a non-fiction book generally does, it looks as if it is geared for a different audience, one that likes science fiction, fantasy or stories about monsters. Petiot was indeed a monstrous man but not a monster. Was he “the great imposter” or the victim of circumstances? He had many identities and false papers to go with them. Was he a resistance fighter, a collaborator or a serial killer? A master at conversation, brilliant in creating excuses, charismatic and witty, he was an enigma to those who knew him or investigated his behavior. In the end, I found it quite ironic that there was such an uproar and such a massive investigation for the murderer, when Hitler and his minions were, quite nonchalantly, murdering millions and burning their bodies for so long, without the outcry from the citizenry one would have expected. Not only were the victims considered unworthy, but they were so mistreated that one had to suspend disbelief to absorb the knowledge of the crimes, both by the Nazi regime and this mass murderer.

I have some mixed feelings about this book. For one thing, it's entirely devoid of sensationalism, a common staple of the true crime genre. It's truly commendable that the force of the tragedy can carry the narrative along alone. However, this does mean it tends to get bogged down in the details, especially towards the beginning of the novel. Names are thrown at you in the dozens, and it's difficult to make sense of initially. Once the novel gets going however, most of these are quietly dropped and you become familiar with the ones important to the story. Towards the middle of the novel, it's a non issue. Another thing to note is that the book really tells two stories. About halfway through the book, when they catch Petiot, you'll have a brief 'what happens next' moment before you realize the rest of the book is about the trial, which is just as, if not more interesting than the murder mystery. Overall, the true crime genre has never seen better. It avoids common failings of these sorts of tales, never descending into sensationalism or speculation. Recommended, but be prepared to take a beating in the first few chapters.

I love it