Death in the city of light
Ratings5
Average rating3.8
Death in the City of Light is the gripping true story of a brutal serial killer who unleashed his own reign of terror in Nazi-occupied Paris. As decapitated heads and dismembered body parts surfaced in the Seine, Commissaire Georges-Victor Massu, head of the Brigade Criminelle, was tasked with traking down the elusive murderer in a twilight world of Gestapo, gangsters, Resistance fighters, pimps, prostitutes, spies, and other shadowy figures of the Parisian underworld. The main suspect was Dr. Marcel Petiot, a handsome, charming physician with remarkable charisma. He was "The People's Doctor," known for his many acts of kindness and generosity, not least in providing free medical care for the poor. Petiot, however, would eventually be charged with 27 murders, although authorities suspected the total was considerably higher, perhaps even as many as 150. Who was being slaughtered, and why? Was Petiot a sexual sadist, as the press suggested, killing for thrills? Was he allied with the Gestapo, or, on the contrary, the French Resistance? Or did he work for no one other than himself? Trying to solve the many mysteries of the case, Massu -- an inspiration for Georges Simenon's Inspector Maigret -- would unravel a plot of unspeakable deviousness. When Petiot was finally arrested, the French police hoped for answers. But the trial soon became a circus. Attempting to try all 27 cases at once, the prosecution stumbled in its marathon cross-examinations, and Petiot, enjoying the spotlight, responded with astonishing ease. His attorney, René Floriot -- a rising star in the world of criminal defense -- also effectively, if aggresively, countered the charges. Yet despite a team of prosecuting attorneys, dozens of witnesses, and literally more than one ton of evidence, Petiot's brilliance and wit threatened to win the day. Drawing extensively on many new sources, including the massive classified French police file on Petiot, Death in the City of Light is a brilliant evocation of Nazi-occupied Paris and a harrowing exploration of murder, betrayal, and evil of staggering proportions. - Jacket flap.
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This was a fascinating book that looked at the case of Dr. Marcel Petiot, a serial killer that preyed on the people of Paris during the German occupation.
It's a dark, gruesome story, for multiple reasons, and as such I can understand it not being people's cup of tea, but I couldn't tear myself away from it. The lore that people built up about Petiot at the time - was he secretly Gestapo? Secretly French resistance, fighting the Gestapo? Or, was he an entirely domestic monster, taking advantage of the chaos of war to further his own ends?
It's also interesting to see how Petiot played the media to his advantage - that's something we often associate with more modern killers, but having someone doing it so brazenly against a police force unprepared for it was very interesting to see.
Overall, this book was an interesting look at a minor bit of history that often gets (understandably) overlooked in the shadow of the much larger act of violence that was unfolding across Europe at the time. If you're interested in either French history or serial killers as a topic, it's a very worthwhile read.
I have studied European history and the Holocaust and been a consumer of true crime for many years, so I was surprised I had never heard of this case until a podcast (The Catalyst by Amber Hunt) covered it. It's a fascinating story, and thoroughly researched work of history, but the writing was uneven and disjointed at times. I was most disappointed with the epilogue. The author noted that the section was entirely speculative, so I wish he had actually speculated a lot more on the why, in addition to the how. What in Petiot's life may have turned him into a killer? Who was he working for? Why did the Gestapo release him from prison? Without evidence, it's impossible to come to definitive conclusions, but I would have appreciated educated guesses from the author who spent a significant amount of time with the primary sources for this case.
