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bookosaurusrawr's review
3.0
A gripping true crime unlike any I have previously read. The trouble with writing on true crimes is that you often have to be careful of how much you reveal so you do not lose your audience. Often, authors with go off on tangents with little to do about the crime, victims or perpetrator that leave you bored. King's anecdotes are either relevant to the case or examples of the kind of French attitude towards wartime Occupation or shed some light on how horrified the public was to learn of Dr. Petiot's crimes. I found the considerable amount of text relaying the trial to be very enlightens regarding due process in French law. Everything was like a circus to this man who felt his only crime was being apprehended. I wanted to give more stars to this one, because it really is a good read, but there is little "new" evidence or resolution for the victims though King does hold Prosecutors responsible for not following up on key evidence and testimony. He makes no appeal for Dr. Petiot's case and even goes through great pains of citing his psychiatric examinations over the course of his life and their implications in the trial. Overall, this was a very well written book.
treehuggeranonymous's review
3.0
An interesting read that will leave as many questions unanswered as it solves. I like that the book starts by outright saying 'this is the killer' and then going through the procedural drama.
I found some of the tangents a bit unnecessary. There's setting the context and then there's half a chapter on Camus and Picasso hanging out with Satre that has absolutely nothing to do with the murders or the Nazis.
I found some of the tangents a bit unnecessary. There's setting the context and then there's half a chapter on Camus and Picasso hanging out with Satre that has absolutely nothing to do with the murders or the Nazis.
musicalpopcorn's review
3.0
This was a very detailed account of the discovery, search for, and trial of a serial killer in Nazi-occupied France.
This was an interesting book but I think it could have done with a little more editing. There was a lot of details that probably didn’t need to be there. For example, a brief history of the guillotine was probably not necessary and the long sections about famous people in France, such as Camus and Picasso didn’t really add much to the story. This does tend to be a trend in historical true crime books that I’ve read where I guess the author feels the need to give context to the time period or something but just ends up rambling about famous people for far too long with little reason.
Overall the book was clearly thoroughly researched, however it was at times hard to follow when there were detailed descriptions of almost every person involved in the trial.
This was an interesting book but I think it could have done with a little more editing. There was a lot of details that probably didn’t need to be there. For example, a brief history of the guillotine was probably not necessary and the long sections about famous people in France, such as Camus and Picasso didn’t really add much to the story. This does tend to be a trend in historical true crime books that I’ve read where I guess the author feels the need to give context to the time period or something but just ends up rambling about famous people for far too long with little reason.
Overall the book was clearly thoroughly researched, however it was at times hard to follow when there were detailed descriptions of almost every person involved in the trial.
jheckman324's review
1.0
Gave up on this one - I might return to it later sometime but not worth my time right now.
jaclynday's review
3.0
One of my strangest guilty pleasures is reading true crime nonfiction. (Brandon calls me the “black widow.”) I think there’s a part of all of us that is fascinated by the extent to which people can snap and do insane, unthinkable things.
The serial killer in this book, Dr. Marcel Petiot, is a particularly nasty case of crazy. The authorities weren’t sure exactly how many people fell victim to him—the number ranges from 27 to over 100—and the cause of death has never been determined either. (Theories range from poisoning by injection to gas.) But, what they do know is that after investigating a fire at one of Petiot’s Paris properties, there were dozens of bodies spread throughout the home—from the basement stove to a courtyard pit.
As if the story isn’t horrific enough on its own, this is also happening at the tail-end of the Nazi occupation of Paris during World War II. The Nazi Gestapo, Jewish families seeking to flee the city and Marcel Petiot all intersect in nightmarish, unbelievable ways. Who are Petiot’s victims? Where did they come from? It turns out, that with a few exceptions, most were Jewish residents of Paris who paid him for assistance leaving the country. They never left the abandoned townhouse he used as an operational base.
Unfortunately, while the story is gripping, the book meanders and even bores at times. The writing is often dry and straightforward and that becomes problematic when King turns to describe Petiot’s trial (which takes up a lengthy portion of the book). The afterward, which contains King’s own theory of how Petiot killed his victims, also fails to adequately wrap up a fascinating aside about a man who claimed to have escaped Petiot’s clutches.
It’s not a perfect book, but it is a very good (if disturbing) one.
The serial killer in this book, Dr. Marcel Petiot, is a particularly nasty case of crazy. The authorities weren’t sure exactly how many people fell victim to him—the number ranges from 27 to over 100—and the cause of death has never been determined either. (Theories range from poisoning by injection to gas.) But, what they do know is that after investigating a fire at one of Petiot’s Paris properties, there were dozens of bodies spread throughout the home—from the basement stove to a courtyard pit.
As if the story isn’t horrific enough on its own, this is also happening at the tail-end of the Nazi occupation of Paris during World War II. The Nazi Gestapo, Jewish families seeking to flee the city and Marcel Petiot all intersect in nightmarish, unbelievable ways. Who are Petiot’s victims? Where did they come from? It turns out, that with a few exceptions, most were Jewish residents of Paris who paid him for assistance leaving the country. They never left the abandoned townhouse he used as an operational base.
Unfortunately, while the story is gripping, the book meanders and even bores at times. The writing is often dry and straightforward and that becomes problematic when King turns to describe Petiot’s trial (which takes up a lengthy portion of the book). The afterward, which contains King’s own theory of how Petiot killed his victims, also fails to adequately wrap up a fascinating aside about a man who claimed to have escaped Petiot’s clutches.
It’s not a perfect book, but it is a very good (if disturbing) one.
genizah's review against another edition
2.0
This suffers a great deal from the inevitable comparison with the fantastic The Devil in the White City. I was expecting a side-by-side narrative of life in Occupied Paris with the serial killer, but it was primarily an exhaustingly detailed account of the investigation and trial. (The very occasional digressions into what Sartre and Camus were up to during the Occupation were more jarring than enlightening.) And while the story is fairly interesting, it's not nearly interesting enough to warrant the length of this book.
cheryl6of8's review
4.0
I got this from my sister-in-law, who got it from a neighbor in a book swap. The original reader received the book as part of the First Reads program on goodreads, based on the letter folded inside the front cover.
This was a compelling read for me, which is why I gave it 4 stars. It was hard to put it down, although at least part of what kept me going was a desire for answers thag no one ever got (the fact that not everything is explained is a frustrating aspect of true crime stories, but was more pronounced here). Petiot was clearly a monster, but the things that drove him and the identity and number of all his victims are known to him alone. The story reminded me somewhat of Dr. Holmes (the subject of Erik Larson's Devil in the White City) in terms of the setting, the ease of attracting victims, the large number of people affected, and the unclear motivation. An excellent reminder that serial killers are not a recent phenomenon, although the serious study of them is. If any of the current methods for handling these cases had been followed here, the details of the crimes would not be as vague and Petiot would be a well-known figure.
This was a compelling read for me, which is why I gave it 4 stars. It was hard to put it down, although at least part of what kept me going was a desire for answers thag no one ever got (the fact that not everything is explained is a frustrating aspect of true crime stories, but was more pronounced here). Petiot was clearly a monster, but the things that drove him and the identity and number of all his victims are known to him alone. The story reminded me somewhat of Dr. Holmes (the subject of Erik Larson's Devil in the White City) in terms of the setting, the ease of attracting victims, the large number of people affected, and the unclear motivation. An excellent reminder that serial killers are not a recent phenomenon, although the serious study of them is. If any of the current methods for handling these cases had been followed here, the details of the crimes would not be as vague and Petiot would be a well-known figure.
msgtdameron's review
informative
medium-paced
4.0
How does one conduct a criminal investigation when you are the Prefect of Police under the NAZI occupation?If you read this work and follow Detective Inspector Mass you will find out. The investigation into a psychopath serial murder, Dr. Periot, was conducted with professionalism that is absolutely amazing under the conditions of occupation and the limited forensic measures that were available in1944. The trial part showed that under the new liberated government of France the trial verdict was most likely predetermined. But the right man got the guillotine. Even though Detective Mass was under arrest as a collaborator for doing his job which did require some collaboration with the NAZI's, he was found NOT guilty of collaboration, in 1947 a year after the verdict in the murder trial. He never got the chanced to interrogate the Dr., which would have made the outcome seem more fair to the Dr. Good read.
tasmanian_bibliophile's review against another edition
4.0
‘The greatness of man lies in the decision to be stronger than his condition.’ (Camus)
In 1944, three months before D-Day, some Parisians in the 16th Arrondissement started complaining about the thick, acrid smoke coming from a town house at 21, Rue Le Sueur. Finally, one neighbour worried about a chimney fire, called the authorities. They discovered that the basement of the mansion, festooned with human bones, contained a coal stove burning body parts. An outbuilding contained a strange triangular room that was virtually soundproof. The former stable contained a pit of about 10 feet in depth which was filed with quicklime and rotting flesh. In this way, one of history’s most macabre episodes of serial murder was uncovered.
‘No one ever knows if he is crazy or not,’ Petiot said. ‘You can only be crazy by comparison’.
The investigation quickly focussed on the building’s owner: Dr Marcel Petiot, a quick-witted and charming medical doctor with a checkered past. Petiot had obtained reimbursement from the state for unorthodox treatments for which he had sometimes also charged the patients, and he was also implicated in narcotics dealing. Petiot also claimed to be part of a Resistance organization helping people, especially Jews, to escape from Nazi Europe - for a sizeable fee.
But as Commissaire Georges-Victor Massu, chief of the Brigade Criminelle, discovered, few (if any) of Petiot’s clients made it safely to their destinations. Petiot collected their money and possessions, which he stashed away in several properties he had acquired around Nazi-dominated Paris. Just how many people did Petiot kill? Was he working for the Gestapo, or for the Resistance? Could he have been working for both, or neither?
‘Indeed, no one has ever established the total number of victims, which could be anything from a handful to 26 (the court’s opinion) 63 (Petiot’s claim), 150 (Dr Paul’s off-the-record estimate), or perhaps even more (Director of the Police Judiciaire Rene Desvaux’s guess).’
David King’s interest in this case was piqued by a contemporary account he found at an antiquarian bookshop. He was able to gain access to the police records of the case, which had been classified for sixty years. This has enabled him to provide a wealth of detail about the case, and about the Nazi-occupied Paris in which it occurred. Commissaire Massu had initially assumed that the Gestapo was behind the carnage, and didn’t question or arrest Petiot until after he received orders from the Germans. Petiot was able to evade arrest for seven months. During his last weeks of freedom, he successfully masqueraded as a Free French Army Officer investigating the case.
This is a well-paced narrative of a dreadful crime. The second half of the book focusses on Petiot’s farcical trial in 1946. So many people became involved as interested parties that the investigation and evidence became secondary. Petiot was declared guilty and sentenced to death: the complete facts of the case will never be known.
’Did Petiot have a last confession or any final words? ‘No’, he said. ‘I am a traveller who is taking all of his baggage with him.’
Jennifer Cameron-Smith