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

Imagine an author pitching a book..."The plot concerns a serial killer in occupied Paris during the Second World War. The killer is a physician who has dabbled in suburban politics, has a history of mental illness. His victims are gangsters and Jews, who engage him to obtain safe passage to South America after loading all their valuables into suitcases and sewing their jewelry into the lining of their clothes. The doctor drugs them and then tortures them in a homemade dungeon before dissecting them and throwing their remains into a lime pit near the killing chamber or throwing the remains into the Seine. When the bodies in the building are discovered he mysteriously escapes only to be captured after the war and put on trial for his life."

You know, don't you, what the editor would say? "Even fiction must bear some resemblance to reality."

Only the problem is, this is a true story. It is also one which despite the capture and trial of the deranged Dr. Marcel Petiot questions and indeed mysteries remain. It is an incredible tale, told in vivid detail. If I have one criticism it is that the trial section attempts to recreate what post-war Parisians surely imagined was the "trial of the century." Most trials are dull affairs, as thirty six years of trial practice qualifies me to observe. Most trials can however be whittled down to their most dramatic essence. David King spends too much time recounting events so boring that even a man on trial for his life snoozes.

It is a small criticism of a remarkable account of a series of horrible crimes made even more awful by the cynicism of the perpetrator, who offered freedom to the oppressed only to kill and rob them.

In a city gripped with the terror of Nazi occupation, French police discover a house of horrors in the midst of a trendy Paris neighborhood. Piles of limbs and torsos, burning flesh, and a decomposing pit of corpses fill the residence of a prominent doctor. Investigators have an enormous amount of work on their hands, not only in the manhunt for the alleged murderer, Dr. Marcel Petiot, but in discovering motive and identifying the enormous amount of remains. The tedium of sifting through the fragments of body parts that have literally been stripped of all identifying features is all but impossible. To determine Dr. Petiot's victims, they must first identify who has gone missing during his alleged murder spree, no easy task in a city where people disappear regularly. Deportment of Jews and abduction by the Gestapo are common, but slowly, detectives determine who had ties with the suspect.

This aspect of the investigation is where the story gets tedious. There are so many individuals who have connections to the Doctor, and the details of all these associates are a bit tiresome. French gangsters, innocent Jews looking to escape the country, and colleagues who could have uncovered Dr. Petiot's questionable practices are on the list. There's also the network of the Resistance, communists, Germans and neighbors to keep track of, and all the French names were difficult to remember.

It is once the trial gets underway that the Doctor displays the full depravity of his madness. He does not deny that he killed people, nor does he fully confess to how or why. He claims he only killed collaborators and criminals, and that he was an integral part of the Resistance. He is defiant and remorseless, infuriating prosecutors. Though the author is never able to determine with certainty what investigators were unable to prove and the secrets that Petiot took with him to the grave, I think he did a good job using the evidence and testimony available to speculate the truth. It's a bizarre and gruesome story, but fascinating in the atmosphere of a city occupied by a tyrant and victimized by a serial killer.

What a perfect scenario. Nazi forces invade France during the Second World War and occupy Paris. While occupying the city, a French doctor takes to the streets and begins to use the cover of the Nazi occupation as his chance to kill. This book is the story of Dr. Marcel Petiot and his killings during the German occupation of Paris. Petiot was able to stay below the eyes of the French-German police to allude their capture by using his wits and the fact that he was a respected doctor to persuade them. At one point the French police even let Petiot go because he convinces them that he is storing bodies (as they found body parts all over a flat that he owned but did not live in) that were Nazis that the French had killed and dismembered so that the Germans would not find them. His lies worked. He was able to avoid the watchful eyes of both the French and the Germans through his lies.

The book follows the history of Petoit. It follows his murders to his arrest and his trial. It shows life in occupied Paris and how this allowed Petoit the cover to do his ghastly work. The story is full of suspense and turns. One minute you will think that Petoit is a good as caught for his crimes and then he will use his wits and his lies to get out of a close call. In the end, he goes down as one of the worst serial killers of our time. And here you will read his story.

I do recommend this book if you love to read suspenseful stories of true crime. You will read of how Petoit used his knowledge to study death by killing people that he believed the Germans would not take the time to search for such as Jews. While the Nazis were hunting down Jews, Petoit used this knowledge to "hide" Jews but instead he would kill them himself. His crimes are gruesome but this book is not gory at all. It deals with the facts with respect and from a historical perspective. Each page will have you turning to the next to see just what will happen to Dr. Petoit.

History, at its best, is stranger than fiction. Such is the case in "Death in the City of Light," a gripping, exhaustively detailed account of a sadistic serial killer, Dr. Marcel Petiot, and his cunning and ruthless explotation of Jews and others during the Paris Occupation.

Relying heavily upon a recently released police file on the case, historian David King chronicles the story from the initial discovery of the bodies, through the manhunt for Dr. Petiot, through his strange and inappropriately comic murder trial. But King does more than that. With a true gift for relevant context, he vividly recreates the Paris of World War II with meaningful asides on the Parisian intellectual community, including the activities of Jean-Paul Sartre, Albert Camus, and their contemporaries while the Petiot murder investigation and trial was taking place a few blocks away. He also creates a fascinating portrait of desperation and fear in Occupied Paris, especially among the Jewish community that Petiot and his associates prayed upon.

If anything, the book is almost a little too detailed. Though I can hardly fault the author for his intense research, there were confusing and tedious moments throughout when King would introduce a new player in story and halt the action and drama of the historical storytelling for two to five pages of background information. Later, in the final third of the book devoted to the trial and its aftermath, King takes us day by day and as the entire cast of characters again takes the stage, there are no re-introductions. I found myself constantly flipping back to the relevant passages of background information in order to keep straight the twenty-seven victims and their personal stories. These criticisms aside, I vastly enjoyed the drama and suspense of this historical work. Recommended.

Very interesting true story of a smooth-talking, murderous physician set against the unsettling background of Nazi-occupied Paris. Dr. Petiot pretended to help Jews and others escape occupied France, but instead of arranging their safe escapes, he stole all of their money and valuables, murdered them in the most horrific ways, and disposed of their bodies in the most grisly ways possible, with flayings and decapitations, all the while informing their families that all was well and they had safely arrived in various international locations. It is difficult to imagine greater evil than the evil of Nazi terror, but this is truly evil at its worst -- really horrifying. It is difficult to imagine these horrendous crimes could go undetected for so long, particularly when some of the evidence indicting Petiot is so damning, but the setting -- Nazi-occupied France -- created a perfect climate for these crimes to go undetected. The police were initially hesitant to take action because of concerns that the doctor was actually acting on behalf of the occupying forces, and folks could never be sure who to trust, who to confide in.

There is little mystery in the book -- we meet the culprit immediately, and quickly come to understand the extent of his evil. Most of the book is about the bumbled investigation and the three-ring-circus of a trial in which the doctor occasionally had the upper hand.

The book seems to ramble a bit. There is some name-dropping, and the cast of characters is expansive and difficult to follow at time. But the underlying story is gripping, sheds light on what life may have been like in Nazi-occupied France, and is and well worth reading.

A good true crime book offers a sensational crime, a loathsome but mysteriously charismatic criminal, dogged detective work, and legal resolution. A really good one offers a picture of the society and times in which the crimes and punishment take place. In that latter respect, David King's most recent book excels. _Death in the City of Light: The Serial Killer of Nazi-Occupied Paris_ (Crown Publishers) is a great story about lurid crimes and the difficulties of solving them, difficulties which were magnified by the confusion of conflicts due to Nazi rule, the complications of the case because of the direct involvement of the Gestapo, and the inherent difficulties in bloody times of telling who is really a murderer. There are still mysteries in the case of the killer, Marcel Petiot, but King has some new evidence and presents as full a recounting as we are going to get. It is an exciting, bizarre, and macabre tale, told with just the right amount of detail and explanation of the weird social and political situations during the Occupation.

King starts on 11 March 1944 when residents of the fashionable district of the 16 arrondissement noticed a smoke of disgusting odor issuing from a townhouse in the neighborhood. The police, having found grisly remains inside, initially inferred that the Gestapo was using the house as a killing station, and so the investigation against Doctor Marcel Petiot was slowed. Petiot was a popular man, elected to the national assembly by his town. He enjoyed his money, and once the Germans took over Paris, he found a new method of getting it. He encouraged his reputation as a man with connections that could get Jews out of France. At the appointed time, they would come to his house bearing the two suitcases crammed with clothes and any packable valuables. And they were never seen again. Of course, people were disappearing from Paris by the hundreds. Some were secreted to Spain and freedom, and some vanished into the prisons of the Gestapo, and some disappeared within the trains that were to go to concentration camps. The resulting confusion enabled Petiot to put his scheme into practice repeatedly, and he probably killed over sixty people in this way. His trial was a sensation, and a circus. The brazen Petiot maintained that he had been working for a secret operation within the Resistance. He insisted (and truthfully) that he had been arrested and imprisoned and tortured by the Gestapo. They had arrested him on charges of helping Jews escape, and why the Gestapo let him go is not entirely clear. He proudly admitted killing scores of Gestapo agents and traitors, just not the ones whose mutilated bodies were found in his house. He explained that those had been placed by the Gestapo to frame him. Petiot made witty jokes and exchanged barbs with his accusers. The French judicial process will seem peculiar to those familiar with the American one, as the lawyers (including those hired by the victims' families), judge, and even the defendant can interrupt testimony and statements and ask questions. The slick Petiot availed himself of this opportunity frequently and with good effect, proclaiming at one point his expectations that France would honor his brave Resistance actions with a medal. He was in some ways a media hero, and wrote a book about his experiences, copies of which he signed during intermissions in the trial. He had a brilliant and capable lawyer, and despite all that the author has presented beforehand, the outcome of the trial is a revelation when it comes.

King has told this gripping story with detail that it has never had before. He had access to records no one else had gotten, including a police dossier that had been classified ever since the first bodies were found. Petiot is a splendid villain, and would have been tough to catch at any time, but King's attention to the complexities of the Occupation and to Petiot's ability (and that of his allies) to harness the confusion of the time make this a significant contribution to the history of the Occupation.

Imagine a serial killer accused convicted of brutally murdering twenty-six in the current court system. There would be little doubt in your mind that this person was evil. Now imagine taking into account that this was during the last World War. Also, that the person accused was a French doctor that had been part of the French military during the First World War and part of the French resistance during the second. Add on to that idea that he claimed to be a hero of the resistance, not some monster that he was proclaimed to be by the people. This is the story of, Death in the City of Light: The Serial Killer of Nazi Occupied Paris by David King, and our character, Marcel Petiot.
The story is detail laden on the entire process of the initial crime scene on through the investigation of Dr. Petiot and his family, the court trial, his time in jail and his eventual conviction and beheading in the traditional French guillotine. At times the story feels very dense with a plethora of detail about the entire situation but also at other times there is just enough that you want to keep reading to find out more. The perfect blend and balance for a non-fictional read, as this is based off of real life accounts of the Dr. Marcel Petiot trial of the 1940s.
Not only do you find out that Dr. Petiot had murdered those twenty-six, you find out that there were many, many more that he executed during his `rein of terror' that including many Nazi leaders and many other Germans that had infested the symbol of France, the beautiful city of Paris. He used this cover as a resistance member to murder these Germans as well as people that he just did not necessarily get along with in life for whatever reasoning. It was this that became his downfall. The fact that he had murdered many Germans in the same brutal fashion as the twenty-six he was convicted did not even come much to mind in the Parisian court where he was tried.
King also explores the mental stability of Dr. Petiot and his mental conditions that plagued him from his service to France in the First World War, but according to the physicians that were checking his mental state during the trial and prison time he had no such thing and was perfectly stable. All-in-all the book has moments where it shines like a beacon in a true-crime mystery thriller novel, but the book also its downfalls. It can be at times a bit muddled and has a feel of brokenness. Whether this was the intent by King to make us feel like the investigators in the story is unbeknownst to the audience. Certainly this is a book worth reading.

This book presents a very detailed look at a part of history that took a back seat to the World War raging through out the 1940's. With all the death and destruction occurring in France attributable to the war, it is almost unimaginable that a serial killer ran amok in Paris at this time already so filled with sorrow and misery. French citizens were under constant scrutiny during the occupation from many sources including German military, German Gestapo, spies, French Gestapo, French Resistance, and neighbor watching neighbor. It is hard to imagine that a man could murder an estimated 25 to 50 people and still carry on an every day life of a doctor. Dr. Marcel Petiot's preferred method involved convincing his victims, often his patients, that he could spirit them out of occupied France to freedom in Argentina. Many of his victims were Jews who were being pursued by the Nazi's. Dr. Petiot was eventually accused of murdering 27 people. There may have been many more, but the police could only identify 27 with any certainty as the bodies were dismembered and disposed of in a lime pit or burned. This appears to be a case of the criminal often outsmarting and being one step ahead of the police. He left little or no direct evidence that he had committed the murders. He appeared to be completely amoral, with no regret for having taken the lives of so many people. This book is a mesmerizing study of a man who puts himself above the law and his fellow citizens in order to gain personal wealth. Throughout the book there is a lingering question of whether Dr. Petiot will get away with these murders. The seeming ineptitude of the Paris police leaves open the question of whether the doctor will go free or go to the guillotin. No matter your opinion of our justice system, the scenes of the French judiciary system of the late 1940's, will leave you thankful for our current laws and procedures. While not as fast paced as an adventure novel, this book has the impact and immediacy of nonfiction. This book provided for review by the well read folks at Shelf Awareness and the Crown Publishing Group.

Honestly, it doesn't get much stranger than the real life case of Dr. Maurice Petiot. This is a true crime book which reads like a novel or plays out like a Warner Bros. movie ca. 1945.
Petiot was a soldier during WW I who was diagnosed as mentally ill. He exhibited signs of madness and was also an adept kleptomaniac. After a stint in a mental hospital, he was returned to action only to deliberately injure himself to be released from service. After the war, he participated in an excelerated medical program and went into practice as a scam artist and crook. Between bilking patients and performing illegal abortions, he also performed any number of scams. By the time WWII arrived his repertoire of criminal activity expanded to pass himself off as a member of the Resistance and that's when things got interesting. People started disappearing. Eventually a search of his Paris home revealed a house of horror with bones scattered in the basement and his furnace. However, the ever resourceful Petiot managed to evade the police while eventually living in plain sight and extremely close proximity of the police.
Death In The City Of Life is an interesting look at the activities of a con man and perverted serial killer as well as complicated story that uses a critical period in history as a backdrop.
I liked this book because it was all true but read like a novel.

The word "murder", in association with the events of World War II, is unlikely to register much emotion in most people whom are familiar with that period of time. A single death or even a hundred deaths is a mere drop-in-the-bucket considering the rather conservative tally of some 50+ million people killed during the war. But, the story of a sinister Parisian doctor using the war as a convenient backdrop to facilitate a lucrative killing habit directly under the noses of Nazi occupiers proves to be both interesting and unique. David King's DEATH IN THE CITY OF LIGHT sheds light on a lesser known killing spree outside the death camps, battlefields and bombed cities of Europe and into the bizarre and fascinating world of Marcel Petiot ... a doctor, a self-proclaimed member of the French Resistance and serial killer.

Wasting no time getting to the point, the book starts with a seemingly innocuous fire at the home of Dr. Marcel Petiot that leads to the grisly discovery of dismembered human remains. After the reader is subjected to what appears to be a mass homicide, the remainder of the book, like most juicy crime novels, attempts to piece together the "who, how and why" questions/answers to the murder puzzle. The journey that leads to these answers will take the reader deep into the dark and creepy underbelly of Nazi-Occupied Paris ... a place where the black market, thieves, thugs, prostitutes, the French Resistance and the Gestapo thrive. This is an environment where the murder suspect, Dr. Petiot, managed to adapt and carry-out his murderous deeds under the guise of being both a trusted doctor and a self-proclaimed member of the Resistance. All the elements of an addictive murder mystery are provided by DEATH IN THE CITY OF LIGHT and the story culminates in a 1940s French version of a circus-like "trial of the century" akin to the rash of subsequent high-profile American trials. While the story line definitely has an addictive quality to it, the choppy delivery of that story is somewhat distracting and keeps the book from generating an even reading flow.

DEATH IN THE CITY OF LIGHT does more than outline the case of Dr. Petiot's murderous escapades in that it provides an intriguing snapshot of Parisian life under the German Occupation and its bustling enterprise of shady, underworld activity. Particularly interesting is how the world of the "trusted" physician Petiot merges with the worlds of the French Resistance, the Gestapo, the criminal element and Jewish families fleeing persecution. Davis delivers an impressive image of occupied Paris in that it digs beneath the superficial sheen of order and fear that Nazi rule often implies to reveal cut-throat, money-driven criminal enterprise that rendered human life as worthless. Discovering how the unassuming Petiot could deftly function in the underworld while still maintaining his medical practice on the surface is indicative of how individuals creatively used deception to manage their lives under German occupation. The activities of Petiot during this period of time are simply fascinating to read about. From the unnoticed construction of a murder chamber at one of his properties to the limitless trust that he earned from desperate Jewish families trying to elude pursuing Nazis ... a trust that only lead to their demise and the doctor's financial gain. Imprisoned and tortured by the Gestapo, Petiot seemed to have an uncanny ability to play both sides (the Nazis and the French Resistance) ... enough to continue murdering with abandon. Once Petiot is finally arrested and faces trial, the storyline becomes mired in mass of names and additional storylines that do not seem to have any satisfactory outcome. The trial itself is an exercise in frustration in that the circus-like atmosphere and disorganized nature, in addition to the reliance on hearsay and speculation as fact, made the trial's outcome seem illogical. As remarkable as the entire story is, the trial and eventual verdict left serious questions dangling that will probably never be answered ... like how many people he killed, how he killed them and what happened to all the loot he attained from his victims.

Davis does bring forth some clarity in a concluding chapter that sheds some light on how Petiot may have murdered his victims by introducing the story of someone who survived a likely murder attempt. Even with its imperfect delivery, DEATH IN THE CITY OF LIGHT revives quite a tantalizing murder mystery that seems to have faded over time. The book should be particularly appealing to both fans of history and true crime.

From time to time one comes across a historical footnote so fascinating, so shockingly colorful, that it's difficult to believe one hasn't heard about it before. Such is the case of Marcel Petiot, who was, as this book's subtitle informs us, "the serial killer of Nazi-occupied Paris." That a serial killer was active in that place and time is surprising enough, but when one considers the scope of Petiot's crime, his bizarre personal history, his uncertain links to the Gestapo and the French Resistance, and the barely-controlled chaos of his trial, the story becomes the kind of thing you'd dismiss as ridiculous if you came across it in a novel. But despite large gaps in our knowledge, the facts are well-documented, and with access to the French police file on the crime, David King is able to explore its details as never before.

Because Petiot's victims were drawn from those trying to flee occupied Paris, whether they were Jews avoiding persecution, criminals escaping discovery, or just ordinary Frenchmen who wanted to get beyond German control, this book is in part a general history of the occupation itself. Unfortunately, King's success in integrating his treatment of the occupation with the specific story of Petiot is uneven. When it comes to the Resistance, the Gestapo, and the opportunistic gangsters who allied themselves with whatever force was in power, the links are easy, as Petiot had or claimed connections with them all. But chapters on the artists of occupied Paris (Picasso, Camus, and Sartre among them) and on general events feel awkwardly inserted into a separate history. It might have been wiser either to limit the book's scope by omitting the wider history except as necessary to understand Petiot, or to expand it by treating the occupation more substantially, so that the chapters with greater scope wouldn't seem so tangential.

Extraneous detail is also a problem within Petiot's story: King includes the names of many places and persons but fails to describe them with enough detail or style to make them memorable. The streets and neighborhoods of Paris are hard to tell apart, and so, tragically, are Petiot's known victims. Only the killer himself and the initial lead investigator are truly memorable, and for various reasons each spends a substantial portion of the book "offscreen." In addition, King adopts a non-linear approach, beginning with the discovery of the bodies and flashing back to various aspects of Petiot's life and crimes as they become relevant. This has the benefit of gradually revealing the fascinating details of his past, but after a while it becomes difficult to recall what happened when. The range of players, locations, and times never becomes hopelessly confusing, but it does detract from the coherence of the history.

These are quibbles, however, and generally speaking Death in the City of Light is a fine piece of narrative non-fiction that details the many aspects of a criminal investigation, from dogged police research and witnesses with changing stories to media sensationalism and false leads from the well-meaning public. It's difficult to explain just how bizarrely compelling the Petiot case is without giving away its most fascinating details. Suffice it to say that, as with many serial killers, Petiot's early years were rife with what in hindsight are obvious warning signs, and that his trial, in which he demonstrated a quick if cold-hearted wit, is full of the snappy dialogue and strong emotion that are common in TV melodrama but rarely occur in actual courtrooms. With the exception of an epilogue in which (as he acknowledges) he indulges dubious evidence and fanciful speculation, King carefully separates fact from speculation in a case many of whose details will never be known. For readers of true crime with a historical bent, this book is a rare treat.

I'm a sucker for world war II stories. Especially if they are based on actual events. This book, a retelling of the facts surrounding a string of mysterious murders, was right in my sweet spot. A nasty serial killer. More Nazis than a Mel Brooks movie and a tense who-done-it why-done-it and how-done-it plot. And, of course, Paris - tres bien!

You are introduced to the scene of the crimes right up front and it could not have been more gruesome. The description by the author was so vivid that I could almost smell the rot and recoil from the acrid smoke. Yeech!

The skillful way the author interlaced the crime story with the real-life horrors of every day life in occupied Paris was masterful. You could really sense the danger hiding around every corner with secret police, resistance fighters and criminals everywhere. The author made the point that life hung by a thread with the threats from the occupying Germans, blood thirsty Gestapo and French traitors willing to sell a fellow Parisian down the river for a variety of reasons. Again, the author did a wonderful job setting the war-time scene and reinforcing the poisonous atmosphere, all the while moving the story along at a brisk pace.

And while the book is filled with names, dates and places (all supported by copious foot notes) it's not a history text - it's a murder mystery, make no mistake about it. I found that the amazing level of detail was helping me play detective myself, imagining what clues were important and what characters were possible suspects or at least accomplices. Also, the fact that the main suspect had the capacity to be charming and witty was not lost on the author. I think he went out of his way to made sure that the reader was aware of the difficulties the French investigators had in conducting every single interview and cross examination. Thrust and parry, punch and counter punch - again, I saw superb writing as the events were unfolded.

And while the end was never in doubt (after all it was an historic retelling), you actually were held in suspense as you waited to hear the court's final verdict.

I recommend "Death In The City of Light" for anyone looking for a new insight into life in Paris during the second world war. History and mystery lovers will want to curl up in a comfortable chair in good light and ride this time machine back to the dangerous, exciting and cruel world that was France in the early 1940's.

Enjoy the ride. I know I did.

I received an ARC of this book from the publisher.

In Death in the City of Light, David King examines the story of Marcel Petiot, a doctor who, under the guise of helping Jews and other persecuted persons escape Nazi-occupied Paris, perpetrated a slew of murders of the already desperate people. This is no fictional tale, so there are no spoilers to worry about. Instead, this is a well-written, compelling account of a serial killer who used one of the most brutal periods in history to attempt to hide his terrifying crimes.

King offers an extremely detailed account of Petiot's crimes and victims, the discovery of the bodies, the investigation and ultimately the trial. In the hands of a less talented writer, the details could have been confusing and overwhelming. Instead, I found myself captivated by every word and fascinated by the manner in which King used the details to create a gripping portrait of the Petiot story. This was underscored by the fact that I read an ARC version of the book, which did not yet have the Index numbered, and I was still able to keep track of the large cast of characters and the almost bewildering number of places Petiot and family inhabited.

Despite being a historical account, King was able to portray very well the despair and desperation of Petiot's victims, the difficulties encountered by the French police forced to operate under the Gestapo - as well as the police incompetence which was also present - and the frustrating, almost farcical nature of the French trial process.

The excellent pacing and clarity of King's writing makes this a truly superb read. I would recommend this book to anyone who is a fan of true crime/historical non-fiction, and especially anyone who enjoys attention to detail.

From time to time one comes across a historical footnote so fascinating, so shockingly colorful, that it's difficult to believe one hasn't heard about it before. Such is the case of Marcel Petiot, who was, as this book's subtitle informs us, "the serial killer of Nazi-occupied Paris." That a serial killer was active in that place and time is surprising enough, but when one considers the scope of Petiot's crime, his bizarre personal history, his uncertain links to the Gestapo and the French Resistance, and the barely-controlled chaos of his trial, the story becomes the kind of thing you'd dismiss as ridiculous if you came across it in a novel. But despite large gaps in our knowledge, the facts are well-documented, and with access to the French police file on the crime, David King is able to explore its details as never before.

Because Petiot's victims were drawn from those trying to flee occupied Paris, whether they were Jews avoiding persecution, criminals escaping discovery, or just ordinary Frenchmen who wanted to get beyond German control, this book is in part a general history of the occupation itself. Unfortunately, King's success in integrating his treatment of the occupation with the specific story of Petiot is uneven. When it comes to the Resistance, the Gestapo, and the opportunistic gangsters who allied themselves with whatever force was in power, the links are easy, as Petiot had or claimed connections with them all. But chapters on the artists of occupied Paris (Picasso, Camus, and Sartre among them) and on general events feel awkwardly inserted into a separate history. It might have been wiser either to limit the book's scope by omitting the wider history except as necessary to understand Petiot, or to expand it by treating the occupation more substantially, so that the chapters with greater scope wouldn't seem so tangential.

Extraneous detail is also a problem within Petiot's story: King includes the names of many places and persons but fails to describe them with enough detail or style to make them memorable. The streets and neighborhoods of Paris are hard to tell apart, and so, tragically, are Petiot's known victims. Only the killer himself and the initial lead investigator are truly memorable, and for various reasons each spends a substantial portion of the book "offscreen." In addition, King adopts a non-linear approach, beginning with the discovery of the bodies and flashing back to various aspects of Petiot's life and crimes as they become relevant. This has the benefit of gradually revealing the fascinating details of his past, but after a while it becomes difficult to recall what happened when. The range of players, locations, and times never becomes hopelessly confusing, but it does detract from the coherence of the history.

These are quibbles, however, and generally speaking Death in the City of Light is a fine piece of narrative non-fiction that details the many aspects of a criminal investigation, from dogged police research and witnesses with changing stories to media sensationalism and false leads from the well-meaning public. It's difficult to explain just how bizarrely compelling the Petiot case is without giving away its most fascinating details. Suffice it to say that, as with many serial killers, Petiot's early years were rife with what in hindsight are obvious warning signs, and that his trial, in which he demonstrated a quick if cold-hearted wit, is full of the snappy dialogue and strong emotion that are common in TV melodrama but rarely occur in actual courtrooms. With the exception of an epilogue in which (as he acknowledges) he indulges dubious evidence and fanciful speculation, King carefully separates fact from speculation in a case many of whose details will never be known. For readers of true crime with a historical bent, this book is a rare treat.

I'm a sucker for world war II stories. Especially if they are based on actual events. This book, a retelling of the facts surrounding a string of mysterious murders, was right in my sweet spot. A nasty serial killer. More Nazis than a Mel Brooks movie and a tense who-done-it why-done-it and how-done-it plot. And, of course, Paris - tres bien!

You are introduced to the scene of the crimes right up front and it could not have been more gruesome. The description by the author was so vivid that I could almost smell the rot and recoil from the acrid smoke. Yeech!

The skillful way the author interlaced the crime story with the real-life horrors of every day life in occupied Paris was masterful. You could really sense the danger hiding around every corner with secret police, resistance fighters and criminals everywhere. The author made the point that life hung by a thread with the threats from the occupying Germans, blood thirsty Gestapo and French traitors willing to sell a fellow Parisian down the river for a variety of reasons. Again, the author did a wonderful job setting the war-time scene and reinforcing the poisonous atmosphere, all the while moving the story along at a brisk pace.

And while the book is filled with names, dates and places (all supported by copious foot notes) it's not a history text - it's a murder mystery, make no mistake about it. I found that the amazing level of detail was helping me play detective myself, imagining what clues were important and what characters were possible suspects or at least accomplices. Also, the fact that the main suspect had the capacity to be charming and witty was not lost on the author. I think he went out of his way to made sure that the reader was aware of the difficulties the French investigators had in conducting every single interview and cross examination. Thrust and parry, punch and counter punch - again, I saw superb writing as the events were unfolded.

And while the end was never in doubt (after all it was an historic retelling), you actually were held in suspense as you waited to hear the court's final verdict.

I recommend "Death In The City of Light" for anyone looking for a new insight into life in Paris during the second world war. History and mystery lovers will want to curl up in a comfortable chair in good light and ride this time machine back to the dangerous, exciting and cruel world that was France in the early 1940's.

Enjoy the ride. I know I did.

I received an ARC of this book from the publisher.

In Death in the City of Light, David King examines the story of Marcel Petiot, a doctor who, under the guise of helping Jews and other persecuted persons escape Nazi-occupied Paris, perpetrated a slew of murders of the already desperate people. This is no fictional tale, so there are no spoilers to worry about. Instead, this is a well-written, compelling account of a serial killer who used one of the most brutal periods in history to attempt to hide his terrifying crimes.

King offers an extremely detailed account of Petiot's crimes and victims, the discovery of the bodies, the investigation and ultimately the trial. In the hands of a less talented writer, the details could have been confusing and overwhelming. Instead, I found myself captivated by every word and fascinated by the manner in which King used the details to create a gripping portrait of the Petiot story. This was underscored by the fact that I read an ARC version of the book, which did not yet have the Index numbered, and I was still able to keep track of the large cast of characters and the almost bewildering number of places Petiot and family inhabited.

Despite being a historical account, King was able to portray very well the despair and desperation of Petiot's victims, the difficulties encountered by the French police forced to operate under the Gestapo - as well as the police incompetence which was also present - and the frustrating, almost farcical nature of the French trial process.

The excellent pacing and clarity of King's writing makes this a truly superb read. I would recommend this book to anyone who is a fan of true crime/historical non-fiction, and especially anyone who enjoys attention to detail.

Talk about moral ambiguity. While the Petiot affair shares some features of other cases of serial murder (such as that of H.H. Holmes or John Gacy), in a certain sense it could only have occurred during the German occupation. It was a time when life was cheap and people were known to disappear for many different reasons. Jews disappeared because the Nazis took them to death camps. Collaborators disappeared because the Resistance killed them. Resistants disappeared because the Gestapo captured them, or because they were smuggled to safety.

When the French authorities (who were already compromised by their cooperation with the occupying Nazis) responded to a gruesome report of burning body parts in a furnace at a seedy Paris mansion, they were led to a shady doctor of the demi-monde named Marcel Petiot. What they found at the mansion was horrifying: a lime-pit full of bones and decaying flesh, and a stack of suitcases and personal belongings worthy of Auschwitz. Petiot himself had disappeared, and the search for him by Commissaire of Police Georges-Victor Massu is part of the fascinating tale contained in this book.

The Gestapo had earlier arrested and held Petiot for eight months, subjecting him to horrible tortures. Then, they let him go. Why, we may never know. It is all part of the bizarre house of mirrors that surrounds this case. Petiot claimed the bodies found in his furnace belonged only to Germans and collaborators, a convenient excuse for the horrifying deaths of his victims. The prosecutor had a more ominous explanation: that Petiot had promised the victims, among whom were numerous Jews, to smuggle them to freedom--then killed them. This theory was supported by the fact that people who were inconvenient for Petiot had a habit of dying, even before the Occupation.

David King has carefully investigated this morbid tale, and he brings some new insights to the means, methods, and rationale behind Marcel Petiot's sick little Holocaust.

It's hard to imagine anything worse than the horrors of the Holocaust, and yet that very thing is the subject of David King's disturbing but wonderful new book, "Death in the City of Light, The Serial Killer of Nazi-Occupied Paris." Everyone in occupied Paris knew that the Nazis were a sick, twisted regime bent on their horrific ideal of racial perfection, an ideal that necessitated the deportation and ultimately the murder of France's Jews. But Marcel Petiot, physician, veteran of the Great War, and former small town mayor, used the tragedy of the Holocaust to enrich himself by preying upon society's most desperate and vulnerable citizens.

King's book expertly tells the story of Petiot, who claimed right up until the end of his life that he had been a faithful member of the French Resistance. In fact, as the police discovered, Petiot was nothing less than a madman who offered to help Parisian Jews escape the terror of the Third Reich only to end up in the doctor's own house of horrors in the center of Paris. The book follows the gruesome discovery of the dozens of bodies, the manhunt for the killer, and the arrest and trial for Petiot in a chilling but highly entertaining manner. Equally enthralling is King's portrait of Paris during and immediately after the occupation. One can see in figures like Camus, Sarte, and Picasso a city screaming for liberation, and left in the throes of chaos once it had been achieved.

All told, King's book deftly describes the growth and maturation of a specific evil in a period and place where evil was all too common. With the strengths of a novelist, King's book reads like a great thriller and even those familiar with the basics of the case will be left guessing right up to the end. Highly recommended.

When I was young I remember watching "You Are There", a TV show hosted by Walter Cronkite. Each week the show would feature an event from history, treated as if television reporters were there interviewing the participants. I wish my high school history classes were as interesting as that show!

Reading "Death in the City of Light" reminded me of an episode of "You Are There". The author's descriptions of events are narrated so well that it's easy to imagine standing in a crowd of people watching as a house of horrors is investigated; lurking in back alleys trying to escape from Paris; reading about the investigation in the papers; observing the interrogation of suspects; and of course being packed into the courtroom for the trial.

At times the amount of detail becomes a bit overwhelming, and sometimes repetitive. There are descriptions of the disappearance of individuals or families that start to sound alike after a while. But of course they were alike, and that's what investigating serial crimes is about. There is also a lot of detail in the trial. At times is seemed that the author was presenting the court transcript verbatim!

This isn't always an easy book to read. It's not "pop history". But it is a fascinating presentation of a dark period in the history of Paris, and it is well worth the effort.

This book really made me feel the way I did when Walter Cronkite introduced an episode with the words, "Everything is just was it was then ... but You Are There!"

Nazi Occupied Paris conjures up images of brutality and dehumanization amidst glamour. The atrocities of World War II are well-known, but David King tells the story of one of the most unthinkable atrocities that is not widely known. Dr. Marcel Petiot perpetrated the heinous serial murders of those unfortunate Parisians and refugees attempting to flee Nazi occupation. In their desperation for freedom, they foolishly trusted a man who used their desperation to isolate and kill them for material gain and sport. Just when you thought the Holocaust brought out the worst in people, Petiot proves there is worse.

The story is heartbreaking and gripping. Learning about Petiot is fascinating, if at times mundane. History has unfortunately left many questions unasked or unanswered about his personal history and his crimes. Some victims could never be accounted for, and most could not be identified. Petiot made the most of the chaotic time.

It is a story that must be read to fully grasp. This story is for many, as graphic details are not too graphic and the language can accommodate many readers.

My one gripe is in King's story telling ability. It did get tedious and drag at times, but more annoying was his foray into the Existentialists and their happenings that ultimately had no immediate impact on the story. Yet, the story is so fascinating; I say it was worth putting up with these minor flaws.

Recommended (do persevere!).

It's almost unimaginable, a serial killer stalking the streets among history's most notorious mass murderers. "Death in the City of Light" presents the truly amazing story of Dr. Marcel Petiot. A charismatic, charming, intelligent murderer who used the Nazi occupation of Paris to amass a fortune by killing dozens of people hoping to flee Nazi oppression.

I was blown away by this book. I really like David King's writing style, "Death in the City of Light" almost feels like a historical fiction novel as opposed to a historical text. I also like that King presents all sides to the Petoit story. At times you even begin to question whether Petiot could possibly be innocent of the crimes he was charged.

King has obviously done his research as well. And what I found most haunting about "Death in the City of Light" are the little details that King lays out for the reader about Petoit and his crimes. The haunting triangular room with the hooks on the walls, the "lime pit" and it's gruesome contents or the dozens of packed suitcases found on Petoit's property. The passages dealing with Petoit's trial make for fascinating reading, you won't be able to put the book down.

If you are a World War II buff, or into true crime stories, this is a must read.

The author includes too much information in the book, and much of it has little or nothing to do with the main story. In a similar vein, there are way too many characters introduced whose involvement in the main theme is incidental.
With a reduction in length and good editing this could have been a fast-moving interesting story.

This true crime effort has captured the attention of many as a serial killer in Nazi-occupied Paris is instantly compelling and sounds more fiction than non. The shocking and grisly carnage discovered in a Paris home sets the book off with the promise of brisk pace and deep mystery. Yet, the author feels the need to set multiple stages that are admirable for detail but ultimately impact the book's appeal. Unnecessary coverage of arts and culture and famous period figures unrelated to the case bog down progress. Admittedly background on World War Two and conditions in occupied France are integral to this history, yet they too, detract from rather than help the advertised story.

Most unfortunate is the author's choice to reveal Dr. Marcel Petiot as the killer from the outset. While he is a haunting and disturbing character whose motivations are never fully explained, the book loses all suspense with this approach. Incredibly Petiot may have been responsible for upwards of 150 murders though tried on 27 counts. How he did this is incredibly interesting and should hold one's interest. Unfortunately, what is absolutely an incredible story has manifested itself into a mediocre book.

Wanting something similar to Devil in the White City by Erik Larsson I decided to give this book a shot. Reading non-fiction in which the author tries to give a fictionalized tone is very difficult because, in my experience, most authors lose that tone and get lost in all the historical details. Unfortunately, in some chapters, Mr. King got lost, many times he gave way too much information about the war where I lost sight of Petiot only for him to be pushed back into view again with the following chapter. Mr. King also left somethings unanswered, such as (I believe it was in the epilogue) he mentions a young man, whose name escapes me right now, who managed to get away from Petiot... How? I don't ever remember reading how this young man got away. Overall it was an interesting read, horrifying in some chapters, dry in others. To some extent, I would compare it to Devil in the White City, but on the same level? No, definitely not.

As a true crime aficionado and history buff, I can be very critical of books like these, but the subject grabbed my attention right away: World War II, serial killing, Paris--there was a lot of interest for me. And really, I was not disappointed.

There are many parts to the story, but in essence, it traces the activities of Dr. Petiot and his scheme to defraud people fleeing Nazi occupied Paris which led to several killings. What is admirable about David King's work is that he makes every effort to be an impartial narrator, unlike other true crime writers who insist of treating a series of true events as a novel, or, say, in the case of the prolific H. Schecter, writing in a style better suited to pulp fiction or dime novels. King works hard to chase down all the history he can, and qualifies each statement made if there is any doubt of its truth or authenticity. He presents every angle of Petiot's peculiar history: his behavior, his love life, his schooling, his family, and leaves enough room for the reader to judge Petiot's character.

The description of Petiot's crimes is left a bit shallow, which may disappoint those looking for sordid and grisly details, but I very much appreciated his sticking to the facts of the case from the police files and not speculating or over-reaching in his descriptions. True, it is a little maddening to know how much evidence was lost in the crime scene investigation techniques of the day, but otherwise, King is entirely appropriate in not adding imagined details.

While most crime narratives focus on just the crime, King takes the time to walk the reader through Nazi-occupied Paris, as well as the Parisian justice system to provide ample context for the story itself. Without such valuable insight into the time period, the reader might not understand the motives and actions of the French police and prosecutors at the trial. Additionally, King detours now and then to speak of some of the great intellectuals also present at the time, particularly Sartre and de Beauvoir, and weaves in the nature of their philosophy into the case, which dovetails neatly with the theories floated by the police about how Petiot operated and thought. In the end, King adds one minor speculations about Petiot's methods of killing, but only with evidence from other sources, and qualifying that it is only speculation.

This book is far more than a simple true crime story, but also a spellbinding narrative of life in Paris during WWII, and an insight into the people and the culture of the day, and how perceptions of Petiot's crime impacted the city as much as the crime itself.

Wow, this was an amazingly engrossing book. The author is very talented at not only writing but also thoroughly researching his project before showing what he has brought to the table. The description of the French legal process was one of the more intriguing parts for me, as it used to be (still is?) very very different from say the legal system in the USA. I especially appreciated that he made the distinction between what was fact and what was speculation. The final chapter was a real treat as he delved into the speculative and proposed a solution to help fill in some of the gaps that are still left open in this case.

As the author stated, this is an important story that should not be forgotten, not because of the monster it is about, but rather because that person abused the system to exploit his fellow human beings, and we need to do our best to make sure this doesn't happen-however that may be.

The comparisons of this book to Erik Larson's The Devil in the White City are inevitable. Both nonfiction books deal with serial killers who went undiscovered for much too long, both are set in large cities with major events happening, and even the titles are similar. While Devil was set against the happy backdrop of the 1893 Columbian Exposition in Chicago, Death was set a half century later in the horrible time when Nazis controlled Paris.

A serial killer, Marcel Petiot, during a time when so many were being tortured and murdered by a government headed by a maniac - people just disappeared all the time, so who would think it was the result of a serial killer rather than Hitler and minions? Especially when Dr. Petiot claimed to be part of the Resistance, helping people escape.

Given the similar stories, the books are quite different because of the writing. Mr. King details lots of facts, so many that I had trouble keeping up. He has a habit of referring to places by their street addresses, and that was also hard to keep straight, as was the abundance of references to different people, especially when I didn't know which were going to be key players and which were not. Given that, I very much appreciated references to well-known people such as Sartre and Camus.

There were many references to the costs in francs, but I would have appreciated a comparison to current value, because the value of a franc in 1940s occupied Paris means nothing to me, and I'm probably not alone in that.

The writing was straightforward, usually a refreshing change from some of Larson's overblown phrases, but it did sometimes lapse into dryness. Until late into the book, I didn't really get a feel for Petiot, so much was about what was being discovered, but very little about the mind of Petiot. That did change, and made the last part of the book more interesting to me, made the book overall much more interesting. I would have liked to know more about why Petiot was as he was.

I am grateful to have received an uncorrected proof from the publisher.

After seeing the book, and reading the little synopsis on the back I thought this was going to be an excellent read.. I have a love for serial killer stories and I've been interested in the Holocaust since I was about 10 years old. I had never heard this story and thought this book would interest me.. and it would've if it was written a bit better. This book reads like a badly written college essay. So many facts, with no narrative to guide the reader. I often found myself having to flip back into the chapters to connect the characters because the author provides no personality for many of them. The book is sold as a "thriller! a page turner!!" while really it's neither.

I'm the kind of person that will read a good book and become totally immersed in it. Most times, for myself, a good book is better than a good movie, because I can just bury myself in that world. Not here, it was more of...when will this be over? When is he going to get to the point? The author mentioned famous people from the time period, while giving no connection to the story. The characters that SHOULD have held some sort of interest were glossed over. The narrative jumped so many times, I lost track of where the scenes were taking place.. It was, I'm sorry to say, very badly written at best.

I am very interested in the story, regardless, and hope to learn more about it. This book, is just not the place to do that. It isn't interesting, and once I began to really immerse myself in the story-line, the interesting bit would end and I became very frustrated. Reading, in my world, should not be a chore, it is a pleasure and this book WAS NOT.

Set against the coal black sky above occupied Paris, this is a well written, well researched narrative. Reaching into the mind of a serial killer is no easy feat, but King probes the butchery of Marcel Petiot like no other before him. Offering more facts than theories and allowing the reader to find an explanation he finds palatable himself. Was the Doctor responsible for the gruesome discovery in the Basement of Rue Le Sueur? Were these the bodies of German Collaborators and Gestapo? Or was the Doctor exploiting the disappearances common to that time and place to fiendishly feed his bloodlust (and wallet) on a steady diet of desperate souls?

Intrigue, history and suspense combine to make this a quick and intelligent read. Reminiscent, in a fashion, of Capote's seminal "In Cold Blood" real scenes are imaginatively recreated to convey the sinister atmosphere of the Doctor's work in the Charnel House of Rue Le Sueur.

I liked the premise of this book, namely that there was a serial killer in Nazi-occupied Paris that was killing Jews and criminals. Who would the killer be? Would the killer have the approval of the Gestapo? Would the police be able to investigate and apprehend a killer with or without Gestapo influence or control? These are all good questions that I am not sure are answered adequately in the book. It seems as though the author of the book took a very confusing homicidal situation and transferred that confusion into the book.

The first two-thirds of the book detail what police found at 21 rue La Sueur after a fire had started there, the gruesome scenes, and the tangle of suspects that they began to encounter; once they did 'define' a major suspect - Marcel Petiot - to untangle his pack of lies and kernels of truth was a major undertaking indeed. Instead of providing a clear voice to all this confusion though, it seems as if the author was determined to put all that confusion into the book - perhaps his point being to help us (the readers) understand what the police and the main investigators were having to sift through. The bad part about this tactic, though, is that I, as a reader, felt disoriented and utterly bewildered in trying to keep track of not only the cast of characters, but also the minor details of the book - some of which should have been left out. (The book needs to be trimmed of extraneous details by a good and ruthless editor.) It was also disconcerting to have a major character - Commissaire Massu - suddenly to be trailed out of the book with not a neat 'wrap-up.' What I also found extremely jarring was the constant historical bouncy-ball that the author plays - going back and forth in history not only with Marcel Petiot, but also the history of the Occupation in Paris, and intertwining between the two.

The last third of the book - the trial of Marcel Petiot - is when the book regains focus and intensifies the intrigue for the reader. This is where I felt the author really did an outstanding job - and perhaps this is true because he was mainly going by transcripts of the trial. Regardless, the last third of the book is a tighter, more cohesively written story. The epilogue, I think is interesting for the questions that it brings up that were never answered satisfactorily (example: how did Petiot kill his victims) - with some speculation on what the answers could be.

This is not a book that you will be able to speed-read through without completely losing track of all details - as it was, I spent a week straight trying to make heads or tails of this book. This is an average endeavor that is saved by the last chapters of the book.

Flashing back to World War II in Nazi occupied Paris a ruthless murderer Marcel Petiot, committed a magnificent crime that shocked the country. David King the author of Death In The City Of Light, captures the reader by telling the story of Petiot’s interesting past such as being in a psych ward on numerous occasions and graduating from college with honors. This intellect Petiot had proved to be one of the key aspects of being able to develop his master plans even if he did not graduate with the excellence he had claimed to. I would definitely recommend this book to someone who is interested in crimes or history. The author does a good job of describing why Petiot dismembered bodies and then burned their remains. This book keeps you very intrigued because there's always something new being discovered. Throughout the book Petiots disturbing lies unfolded and the ending of the book was the best part because that was when Petiot got what he deserved for being so terrible and inhumane.

For those who prefer that their non-fiction choices read like slick novels, this one's for you.

During the World War II occupation of Paris a serial killer was at work -- and as it turned out he was also a well-known physician! Dr. Marcel Petiot, who was ostensibly aiding people in escaping the most heinous repression that the German military could invoke upon a city of millions, in reality had other plans for these numerous unfortunates.

Dr. Petiot was so dangerous and nefarious that even the Gestapo urged the French Police to locate and arrest him with all urgency.

Here we have a chronicle-noir which is, unfortunately for humankind, a true story of murder and greed, all occurring within a fascinating backdrop of tyranny and oppression.

Author David King yields up to the reader a great deal more than simply the investigation of serial murder on a grand scale -- we additionally get a compelling history lesson. There are lots of twists and turns here.

Fans of true crime, biographies, and the history of war will all savor this fine work equally. This dark story is both fast-paced and well-written.

Highly recommended.

The Nazi occupation of Paris provided an umbrella of opportunity for blackmarketeers and collaborators, and it also created space for an amoral psychopath who spent his adult life defrauding, stealing, dealing drugs, and bumping off anyone who crossed him.
Dr. Petiot used his credentials to rob and defraud, and then scaled up his enterprise when he realized he could dupe whole families fleeing Nazi persecution. Petoit took money and furniture, anything he could lay his hands on, in return for a safe passage to far-off Argentina. But most of these unfortunate people found their way into a pit under Petoit's house, expertly dissected. Petoit did away with dozens of Jews, and also a surprising array of notorious gangsters, testament to his ability to deceive the already-wary.
David King's narrative colors the atmosphere of occupied Paris, Jean-Paul Satre and other famous names flesh out the story. The peculiarities of the French justice system makes for an interesting courtroom narrative, and just like John Wayne Gacy and many other crazies, Petoit lies, denies, confabulates, and even attempts to justify his murderous greed.

This is about a mass murderer preying on desperate people. That there were so many people willing to steal and kill to fill their pockets during the occupation is one thing but this mass murderer and his cohorts goes beyond imagining. The story would never have come to light without the honest people who dealt with the horrors at the time and the historians who have investigated over the decades.

A scan of the previous reviews showed others share my reactions. "Bogged down" is a perfect description. I'm not the true crime buff I was decades ago, but I recall the case from back then. Others are correct in noting that it is hardly an unknown crime. King's obviously extensive research adds nothing of significance to what was already known and published about it. The bits that did interest me were actually facts I didn't know about occupied France and Paris. The author's research would've made a more interesting book on that subject. A minor correction in chapter 11: "...he probably scalped and disinterred the corpse" probably should have been "dismembered" for "disinterred."

This was a fascinating crime of opportunity and evil. I supplemented the story by viewing numerous pictures on the web. The author includes his thoughts and conclusions of unknown pieces of the puzzle, his thoughts are well reasoned and make the pieces fit. I am surprised that this serial killer is not as well known. For the time period, this was another crime of the century. The political and social atmosphere during the occupation of France is another addition to the enigma of all those who suffered during WWII.

A serial killer who haunts the streets of Nazi-occupied Paris... how can an author go wrong with that set-up? It'd be pretty tough, and the book is an interesting one, with a very promising beginning. All of the elements for a great story are there. Midway through, however, the book really starts to drag. For example, descriptions of the court case seem needlessly long and drag on and on. This book is a great window into a fascinating historical period, but I think some additional editing could have made it truly fantastic. As it is, I don't regret reading it, but I'm not sure I would recommend it either.

While the grisly tale of Dr. Petiot's serial killing during the Nazi Occupation of Paris is strong on content, this work is curiously short on character development and suspense. Its long passages of historical reference read more like a lesson book than context for the crimes. While the author's research is impressive, the execution (no pun intended) for making it a thrilling read is lacking. I can usually consumer books like this in one or two sittings, but this was pretty slow going.

to work on gripping, true crime story set during World War II in occupied Paris with a cast of compelling characters. I appreciated the author's attention to detail, however, a good editor would have tightened up the author's prose and completely eliminated a few chapters: like the chapter about opening night of Picasso's first play. And why all the references to Camus and Sartre? I kept waiting to see the connection between them and Petiot only to be left wanting and wondering....why include? The trial was fascinating yet the most delicious piece of information is revealed in the author's Epilogue. However -- come on David King! Why mention Raphael K. and then NOT tell us how he escaped!!!

Great Detail. An unnerving look into German occupied Paris during WWII. Dr. Petiot's movements are well documented in this description heavy work. He is described as a physician, murderer, Resistance Officer and possibly as a German Gestapo Agent. The details make the book a great read and I wish I would have known of Petiot when I visited France.

Suggested Read

Somehow I feel that this was a potentially outstanding 300 page book jammed into 432 pages. Mr. King is very obviously a meticulous and talented researcher, and a fine writer, and I understand that when you do that much sleuthing that it is very difficult to leave some of your hard won facts out of the finished product.

Just as scenes of great films end up on the editor's floor to give a movie better flow and not bog viewers down and slow the action, I feel that much of the more obscure information unearthed by the author should have been omitted in the final product.

Would I buy another book by this author? I would say so. He is a talented guy. He just has a tendency to go off on tangents.

e1

Meh. The insight into Nazi occupied Paris was interesting but I felt I was left dangling. Exactly why did this monster do what he did? There seemed to be a lot of filler, a lot of detail that did nothing to shed any light on his true motives. Two stars would mean I didn't like it. I would have given it 2.5 if I could. I only disliked it a little.

This is a decent book but the information could be tightened up a bit. There is also a scattering of details that don't really relate to the story. But I still recommend it if you have an interest in Nazi Germany.

This was a great story. If one enjoys criminal history it's a must read. Ignore the bad reviews, those are mostly due to american attention span in my opinion. I've no complaints about this one. It will not disappoint.

I was utterly fascinated by the idea of this book, but the writing was very dry and seemed to skimp on what would be the most fascinating and disturbing parts. Instead it was like a police procedural, focusing more on the procedure. As horrifying as it all was, it was told without really feeling the human cost. A little more emotion would have done this story well.

As I see that many reviewers have already accounted for the basic progression and pace of this well-researched book, I'll just add my support to the assertion that the book becomes what one reviewer referred to as a 'snooze fest' about 1/3 of the way into it. I am sure that future researchers of the Petiot murders and trial will mind this book invaluable, but beware... the casual reader may tire of the rabbit holes King descends into as he provides background details for characters in the story that, in the end, don't seem particularly relevant for the story.

Very interesting read. As someone who truly enjoys non-fiction especially in the WWII era, this was a great book. It's spooky, harrowing, and unbelievable in the sense that it actually happened. Great read for anyone who likes history, the facts behind Nazi-occupied Paris, and a scary story of a serial killer gone psycho.

This is a shocking account of a highly accomplished society man whom, as it turns out, was one of the most prolific serial killers in history. The story is interesting but tragically, we know little of the true details. As much of the account is speculative and focuses on the trial, the reader will be left feeling the same as the historian, frustrated by evidence. A fun summer read that is shocking and sensational!

The Petiot case is not only dreary and dull (especially compared to that of, say, Landru), but also confused and confusing and convoluted, and abounding in uncertainties and loose and dead ends. The tale's inherent problems are exacerbated by David King's approach to exploring and unraveling the many mysteries pertaining to the murders in rue Le Sueur -- an approach I consider lackadaisical and downright somnolent. "Death in the City of Light" reads as though a throw-away assignment from an indifferent professor to a dutiful albeit detached student. None of this benefits, by the way, from King's occasional irrelevant forays into the world of gasbag Jean-Paul Sartre's pretentious and narcissistic get-togethers.

I'm dismayed by the many positive reviews this book has received. Well, there's no accounting for judgment -- or the lack thereof.