The Crimes of Paris: A True Story of Murder, Theft, and Detection

The Crimes of Paris: A True Story of Murder, Theft, and Detection

The Crimes of Paris: A True Story of Murder, Theft, and Detection

The Crimes of Paris: A True Story of Murder, Theft, and Detection

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Overview

Turn-of-the-century Paris was the beating heart of a rapidly changing world. But the City of Light was also a violent place. Criminals eagerly took advantage of the inventive nature of the age—the first getaway car, increasingly dangerous weapons, more creative disguises. The police battled back with a weapon of their own: Alphonse Bertillon, the world’s greatest detective, the inventor of the mug shot and the crime-scene photo, and a brilliant innovator who pioneered the new science of criminal investigation.

Then on August 21, 1911, came a crime like none other: Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa was stolen from the Louvre. It was assumed that Bertillon would quickly solve the mystery and retrieve the painting.

It would not be so simple.

In The Crimes of Paris, Dorothy and Thomas Hoobler tell the gripping story of the theft and the investigation that followed. Bertillon and his associates would pursue clues leading them into the world of avant-garde artists, cheap apartments in Montmartre and Montparnasse, cabarets, and from this first great mystery into yet others. Their suspects would be everyone from the poet Guillaume Apollinaire to J. P. Morgan to Pablo Picasso.

A vivid tapestry of Paris, daring thieves, and relentless investigators, The Crimes of Paris is a heart-pounding true-crime thriller of the highest order, as well as a brilliant account of the modern detective.

Dorothy and Thomas Hoobler have written numerous books together, including The Monsters: Mary Shelley and the Curse of Frankenstein and the Edgar Award–winning In Darkness, Death. They are married and live in New York City.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780803234321
Publisher: UNP - Bison Books
Publication date: 10/01/2010
Pages: 400
Sales rank: 686,904
Product dimensions: 5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Dorothy and Thomas Hoobler, a married couple, are the authors of The Monsters, a chronicle of the creation of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. Their novel, In Darkness, Death, won a 2005 Edgar Award. They live in New York City.

Table of Contents

Theft 3

Chapter 1 The City of Light 8

Chapter 2 Searching for a Woman 43

Chapter 3 Sympathy for the Devil 68

Chapter 4 Science vs. Crime 95

Chapter 5 The Man who Measured People 140

Chapter 6 The Suspects 177

Chapter 7 The Motor Bandits 208

Chapter 8 The Thief 249

Chapter 9 Cherchez la Femme 268

Chapter 10 The Greatest Crime 305

Afterword: The Mastermind 315

Acknowledgments 321

Notes 323

Bibliography 341

Index 359

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