Death in the city of light

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.