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Paul's Reviews > Death in the City of Light: The Serial Killer of Nazi-Occupied Paris
Death in the City of Light: The Serial Killer of Nazi-Occupied Paris
by
by
Putting the "meh" in "dénouement"
I really wanted to enjoy "Death in the City of Light." It certainly *looked* intriguing; German-occupied 1940s Paris is not your customary setting for a true crime thriller. Unfortunately author David King couldn't quite deliver a finish that lived up to the pursuit of fugitive doctor Marcel Petiot as he tried to evade French authorities following the discovery of dozens of bodies in and around his Paris townhouse.
By filling the first part of his novel with the sensationalized and hysterical media accounts and popular rumors that swirled around Petiot prior to his capture, King set a fairly high bar that the tale's resolution--or lack thereof--simply couldn't reach. After a somewhat breathless account of the manhunt to find Petiot, King repeatedly promised "a circus" of a trial...only to deliver a dud of a narrative, peppered with witness stand exchanges that were more catty than clever and utterly failing to build a sense of tension for the reader. The verdict arrives with a flop rather than a bang and King closes with a bland explanation of what he believes happened based on his research of the case.
While the "we'll never know the true story, but..." style of ending can be satisfying on its own, King doesn't quite manage to carry it off. This was to be expected, perhaps, given his repeated violation of the "show, don't tell" axiom throughout the book. King includes multiple chapter-length asides about the activities of figures such as Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, and Albert Camus for no other apparent reason than a clunky attempt to make the story seem more "Parisian." Although King is necessarily constrained by the documented facts of the Petiot case, he did himself no favors by starting with "tabloid" when the close was somewhat destined for "tepid."
I really wanted to enjoy "Death in the City of Light." It certainly *looked* intriguing; German-occupied 1940s Paris is not your customary setting for a true crime thriller. Unfortunately author David King couldn't quite deliver a finish that lived up to the pursuit of fugitive doctor Marcel Petiot as he tried to evade French authorities following the discovery of dozens of bodies in and around his Paris townhouse.
By filling the first part of his novel with the sensationalized and hysterical media accounts and popular rumors that swirled around Petiot prior to his capture, King set a fairly high bar that the tale's resolution--or lack thereof--simply couldn't reach. After a somewhat breathless account of the manhunt to find Petiot, King repeatedly promised "a circus" of a trial...only to deliver a dud of a narrative, peppered with witness stand exchanges that were more catty than clever and utterly failing to build a sense of tension for the reader. The verdict arrives with a flop rather than a bang and King closes with a bland explanation of what he believes happened based on his research of the case.
While the "we'll never know the true story, but..." style of ending can be satisfying on its own, King doesn't quite manage to carry it off. This was to be expected, perhaps, given his repeated violation of the "show, don't tell" axiom throughout the book. King includes multiple chapter-length asides about the activities of figures such as Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, and Albert Camus for no other apparent reason than a clunky attempt to make the story seem more "Parisian." Although King is necessarily constrained by the documented facts of the Petiot case, he did himself no favors by starting with "tabloid" when the close was somewhat destined for "tepid."
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Reading Progress
June 27, 2013
–
Started Reading
June 30, 2013
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Finished Reading
July 1, 2013
– Shelved