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. As he continues his investigations, La Reynie suspects that Louis's mistresses are involved in many of the nefarious plots he has uncovered, and he must decide just how far he will go to protect his king. 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.
Record details
ISBN:9780393239782
ISBN:0393239780
Physical Description:print xxiii, 310 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations, maps ; 25 cm.
Edition:First edition.
Publisher:New York, NY :W.W. Norton & Company,[2017]
Copyright:℗♭2017
Content descriptions
Bibliography, etc. Note:
Includes bibliographical references (pages [247]-296) and index.
Formatted Contents Note:
A note on currency -- Burn notice -- Part I: "Day and night they kill here." Crime capital of the world -- City of light -- The street at the end of the world -- To market -- Part II: King of hearts. Agitation without disorder -- The dew and the torrent -- The door marked 1 -- "He will ... strangle me" -- Part III: "She will turn us all into poisoners." 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" -- Part IV: "Cease your scandals." House of porcelain -- Offering -- "The sneakiest and meanest woman in the world" -- "Burn after reading" -- Dinner guests -- The question -- Monsters -- Part V: "She gave her soul gently to the Devil." Quanto -- Search and seizure -- A noble pair -- The burning chamber -- "Beginning to talk" -- Fortune-teller -- "From one fire to another" -- Part VI: Wicked truths. 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. As he continues his investigations, La Reynie suspects that Louis's mistresses are involved in many of the nefarious plots he has uncovered, and he must decide just how far he will go to protect his king. 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.
Book
