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

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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 tracking down the elusive murderer in a twilight world of Gestapo, gangsters, resistance fighters, pimps, prostitutes, spies, and other shadowy figures of the Parisian underworld.xA0;xA0; The main suspect was Dr. Marcel Petiot, a handsome, charming physician with remarkable charisma.xA0; He was the x201C;Peoplex2019;s Doctor,x201D; known for his many acts of kindness and generosity, not least in providing free medical care for the poor.xA0; Petiot, however, would soon be charged with twenty-seven murders, though authorities suspected the total was considerably higher, perhaps even as many as 150.Who was being slaughtered, and why?xA0; Was Petiot a sexual sadist, as the press suggested, killing for thrills?xA0; Was he allied with the Gestapo, or, on the contrary, the French Resistance?xA0; Or did he work for no one other than himself?xA0; Trying to solve the many mysteries of the case, Massu would unravel a plot of unspeakable deviousness.xA0; When Petiot was finally arrested, the French police hoped for answers.xA0;But the trial soon became a circus.xA0; Attempting to try all twenty-seven cases at once, the prosecution stumbled in its marathon cross-examinations, and Petiot, enjoying the spotlight, responded with astonishing ease.xA0; His attorney, RenxE9; Floriot, a rising star in the world of criminal defense, also effectively, if aggressively, countered the charges.xA0; Soon, despite a team of prosecuting attorneys, dozens of witnesses, and over one ton of evidence, Petiotx2019;s brilliance and wit threatened to win the day.Drawing extensively on many new sources, including the massive, classified French police file on Dr. 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.

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DAVID KING is the author of the acclaimed Vienna, 1814 and Finding Atlantis. A Fulbright Scholar with a master's degree from Cambridge University, he taught European history at the University of Kentucky for several years. He lives in Lexington, Kentucky with his wife and children.