Edition |
First edition. |
Physical Description |
xxiii, 310 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations, map ; 25 cm. |
Note |
Includes bibliographical references and index. |
Contents |
A note on currency -- Burn notice -- Crime capital of the world -- City of light -- The street at the end of the world -- To market -- Agitation without disorder -- The dew and the torrent -- The door marked 1 -- "He will ... strangle me" -- The golden viper -- "Madame is dying, madame is dead!" -- Poison in the pie -- An alchemist's last words -- The faithful servant -- "Brinvilliers is in the air" -- House of porcelain -- Offering -- "The sneakiest and meanest woman in the world" -- "Burn after reading" -- Dinner guests -- The question -- Monsters -- Quanto -- Search and seizure -- A noble pair -- The burning chamber -- "Beginning to talk" -- Fortune-teller -- "From one fire to another" -- The poisoner's daughter -- Sacrifices -- "A strange agitation" -- Lock and key. |
Summary |
Nicolas de La Reynie, appointed by Louis XIV as the first police chief of Paris, pursues criminals through the labyrinthine neighborhoods of the city, unearths a tightly knit cabal of poisoners, witches, and renegade priests, and discovers that the distance between the quiet backstabbing world of the king's court and the criminal underground is disturbingly short. Tucker has crafted a gripping true-crime tale of deception and murder based on thousands of pages of court transcripts and La Reynie's notebooks, letters, and diaries. |
Subject |
La Reynie, Gabriel Nicolas de, 1625-1709.
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Police -- France -- Paris -- History -- 17th century.
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Crime -- France -- Paris -- History -- 17th century.
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Murder -- France -- Paris -- History -- 17th century.
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Paris (France) -- History -- 17th century.
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