"Death in the City of Light" is a true crime book by David King about a serial killer who murdered dozens of people in Nazi-occupied Paris, France during World War II. 

The crimes committed by the accused serial killer and physician, Dr. Marcel Petiot, were truly horrible.  In addition to being gruesome, his crimes targeted some of the most vulnerable people during World War II - those who wanted to escape the Gestapo. 

Dr. Petiot was seen by those who knew him alternately as a charming humanitarian or a creep.  Dr. Petiot made a reputation for himself by providing free services to the poor.  He was also known to service drug users and was investigated more than once for improperly proscribing medication to addicts.

Petiot effectively used the Nazi occupation of Paris and the French Resistance movement to recruit new victims, prevent too many questions from being asked, and cover his crimes.  Once he is discovered and captured, the central question of his trial becomes whether his murders were committed for the Gestapo, the Resistance, or himself.

The book loses a lot of steam when the trial starts about halfway through.  Normally I'm fascinated by how a foreign country's criminal justice system and trial process compares to the United States, but this one got too bogged down in details.  Also, the author made a point of focusing on the defendant's "witty" remarks in court and the trial audience's delight in him, which was hard to take after learning of all the disgusting things he had done. 

More interesting were some of the procedures used in the French criminal court which were very different from a U.S. criminal trial.  For example, the first part of the trial was basically dedicated to an interrogation of the defendant by the trial judge and lawyers.  By contrast, in the U.S., we have the Fifth Amendment, which protects criminal defendants from ever having to speak in a criminal trial and even prevents the lawyers from commenting on his failure to testify.

Also, several of the victims in the French criminal trial were represented by civil attorneys who actively participated in the trial.  They questioned witnesses and presented evidence.  In the U.S. court system, criminal and civil trials are completely separate.

One of the things I was most struck by was the apparent lack of order in questioning and argument during the French trial.  The defendant and lawyers would speak up, question witnesses, and make arguments seemingly without structure or order.  If this is really the way of a French criminal trial, it is hard to imagine how anything could get accomplished with such a system.  Especially with so many lawyers involved and given lawyers' love of hearing themselves talk!

As far as foreign true crime serial killer books go, I preferred "The Monster of Florence" by Douglas Preston.

Check out my review of "The Monster of Florence" here.

Overall, however, the story underlying "Death in the City of Light" is simply too disturbing and intriguing to ignore. 

(Click the images or links above to check out the books for yourself.)

Also, get your free ebook revealing the Top 7 Mistakes Made by Writers of Crime, Mystery, and Legal Drama.

High profile cases are generally not the best examples of a criminal justice system at work.  I would certainly not want someone judging the American criminal justice system on the basis of the O.J. Simpson and Casey Anthony trials, for example. 

With that caution, Italy's investigation into a serial killer known as the Monster of Florence (il Mostro di Firenze), as presented in a gripping true crime book, The Monster of Florence, by Douglas Preston and Mario Spezi, was nothing short of absurd.  

Although not well known in America, the Monster of Florence is one of the most famous serials killers known throughout the world.  The Monster preyed on young couples who used the hills surrounding Florence as an intimate escape. 

While the targeted couple was in the heat of passion in their car, the Monster would shoot the man, then the woman.  He would drag the woman from the car and cut out her vagina.  In later crimes he would also rip off the woman's left breast.

These horrific crimes, committed over a period of years, terrified people living in the Tuscany hills, and created a frenzy to find the killer or killers.

The book follows the decades of investigation and prosecution of several people accused of being the Monster, or being someone criminally associated with the Monster.  The investigators' theories evolve from a lone serial killer to a family of killers to a vast satanic consipracy involving most of Florence's upper class.  Even the book's authors were swept up in the investigation.

The authors convincingly present their own theory of the crimes and suspect.  My one complaint is that I wished the book had explained a little more was the Italian criminal justice system.  From the bits and pieces discussed, it appears the Italian system is very different from the U.S. system in some key respects (the prosecutor is a judge, a trial is heard by a panel of judges not lay jurors, an appeals court can hear new evidence). 

It would have been interesting to have a little more background on that.  Otherwise, I found the book to be a fascinating case study.  It's a must-read for any fan of true crime.  Despite the complexity of the story, it was a quick and enjoyable read.

There were also some interesting parallels for anyone who followed the Amanda Knox story (American exchange student Amanda Knox and her Italian boyfriend were convicted of murdering her roommate Meredith Kercher in Perugia, Italy).  The main prosecutor who believed in and investigated the satanic consipracy theories of the Monster killings was also Amanda Knox's prosecutor, and he advanced similar theories in that case.

For fans of The Silence of the Lambs (my favorite serial killer book and movie ever) and Hanibal, author Thomas Harris apparently followed the Monster investigations and used the case as inspiration for his books (click the images to order from Amazon).