"DEATH IN THE CITY OF LIGHT: The Serial Killer of Nazi-Occupied Paris," by David King, Crown, $26, 432 pages (nf)
It's hard to imagine anything worse than the horrors of the Holocaust, and yet that is exactly the subject of “Death in the City of Light, The Serial Killer of Nazi-Occupied Paris," by David King, a wonderful amalgamation of history and true crime.
The book closely follows the terrifying exploits of Marcel Petiot, physician, veteran of the Great War and politician, who used the tragedy of the Holocaust to enrich himself by preying upon society's most desperate and vulnerable citizens.
Claiming he was a faithful member of the French Resistance against the Nazis, Petiot was in fact nothing less than a madman who offered to help Parisian Jews escape the murderous policies of the Third Reich only to end up in the doctor's own house of horrors in the center of Paris.
The book begins with the discovery of dozens of bodies of Petiot's victims as his Parisian home burned down and neighbors noted the foul smell. The revelation that the house contained a torture chamber with body parts scattered about shocked the nation and ignited a major manhunt. King then follows the investigation, led by Inspector Georges Massu, who walked a fine line between finding the killer and outwitting the Gestapo.
The final act of the book details Petiot's post-war trial as he twisted the facts and presented himself as a simple, patriotic Frenchman who only executed traitors and German collaborators. Having briefly been a prisoner of the Gestapo himself, Petiot's defense convinced many.
King also offers a remarkable portrait of Paris under Nazi occupation and just after the war. The narrative is filled with black marketeers, drug dealers, prostitutes, collaborators and Nazi officials — the gritty underbelly of Europe's most dazzling city in its darkest period. One can see in figures like Albert Camus, Jean-Paul Sartre and Pablo 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.
Cody K. Carlson has a master's in history from the University of Utah and currently teaches at Salt Lake Community College. He is also co-developer of the "History Challenge" iPhone/iPad apps. His email is ckcarlson76@gmail.com.