An engaging read a well written book about a scary time in Paris.a serial killer a physician each crime& victim is laid out in specific detail of horrific acts. A book that kept me reading late into the night highly recommend,#netgalley#dieinparis

The story unfolds with so many nit picky details it was difficult to stay focused on the main events as they unfolded. The series of events are developed well and flow smoothly from each transition to the next.

Being translated, I noticed instances where it appeared it was a literal translation but the words selected weren't always the best choice to convey what appeared to be the author's original intention. While it has been translated into English, it is my hope the publisher advertises the use of British English as opposed to American English.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing an ARC copy of the book. The opinions expressed above are my own.

Fantastic read. Loving the history and learned from this book. It was well written and flowed well. It was easy to read and hard to put down.

Description:
Marcel Petiot, France’s most famous serial killer

A spring night in Paris. The most beautiful city in the world is dark and silent. Uncertainty devils the air. As does normality: war time normality. The Nazis’ Swastika flutters from the Eiffel Tower. The Parisians are huddled indoors. Suddenly the night’s stillness is shattered by sirens and excited voices. For days foul smoke has been pouring from the chimney of an uninhabited house close to the Avenue des Champs-Elysées. Police and firefighters are racing to the house to break down the bolted door. They make a spine-chilling discovery. The remains of countless human beings are being incinerated in a furnace in the basement. In a pit in an outhouse quicklime consumes still more bodies. Neighbors say they hear banging, pleading, sobbing and cries for help come from inside the house deep at night. They say a shabbily-dressed man on a green bicycle pulling a cart behind him comes to the house, always at dawn, or dusk. The house belongs to Dr Marcel Petiot – a good-looking, charming, caring, family physician who lives elsewhere in the city with his wife and teenage son. Is he the shabbily-dressed man on the green bicycle? If so, what has he to say about the bodies? Die in Paris will give you new insights into the horrors of Occupied France.

MY REVIEW:
When you think of Paris, most people imagine the city of lights, excitement, history, fun, love, etc. No one really thinks of a serial killer murdering so many and burning their bones in their basement.

In this book - Die in Paris - the author tells us the true story of Dr. Marcel Petiot a serial killer. A married physician who lived in the city with his wife and teenage son who would go to a townhouse he owned and eventually murder at least 23 people.

The author walks us through the beginning of this horrific tale, It starts off on that dreadful day on March 11, 1944 when the telephone rings at the police station. A caller from an affluent section of Paris is calling to inform them that there is smoke from a chimney across the street in an uninhabited home. A smoke that is making people sick. During this time the Germans had occupied northern France (including Paris) and there were frequent power outages. The police officer thought at the time it was probably someone trying to stay warm. But, he promised to send someone to investigate the smoke.

When the fire department finally entered the home they went and searched room to room until they descended into the basement. There they found a pile of human remains, a skull and arm burning in the burner and multiple body parts in the corner of the room. When the man in a green bicycle shows up saying he is the doctor's brother the police do not bother to ask his name or number. Thinking the Gestapo was responsible for what had happened the police allow him to leave when he says he is part of the resistance.

As we learn more about Dr. Petiot, it is fascinating that someone who is clearly mentally ill was allowed to continue to operate without repercussions for as long as he did. Even sadder is the fact he promised Jews a safe escape from Nazis to only rob them and then murder them.

Another interesting point in the story to me was the fact that it was against the law to enter someone's home during the night "unless for reasons of a fire, flooding or if summoned from the interior of the home." That and also believing he was a Gestapo torturer refrained them from visiting him that evening when they concluded their search of the townhouse. They actually decided to wait until the following morning to visit Dr Petiot in his home.

Overall the book is very well written book and one I highly recommend if you are a fan of true crime.

This book was provided free of charge in exchange for my honest opinion.

The author's painstaking research and attention to detail is obvious in the writing of this book. The author laid out the information in a manner that allowed the reader to form their own opinion.

Engrossing, scary. Nicely written, keeps you wanting more. Written in a logical and methodical manner, it fills in the reader with as much real time history as necessary to understand how it was when Nazis ran Paris (temporarily). The killer takes full advantage. Many of his victims were wealthy (or not) Jews who were roped in expecting to pay, and then be transported out of there before it was too late. But it was already too late because this Parisian monster took the money, furs, jewels and then took their lives.

One of the most atrocious crimes occurring in occupied France was revealed on the evening of Saturday, March 11, 1944. A constant rolling of smoke from an empty house on one of the best streets in Paris was revealed to be from the biting of tens of corpses. The criminal-an attractive doctor by the name of Petiot with a history of mental defect. As a boy he showed all the signs of a serial killer: bed wetting, starting fires, animal cruelty, parental dysfunction was high. What made his crime all the more despicable was he claimed to be with the Resistance. I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I especially love anytime I can read a recounting of a French court case! It's so unlike the United States. Tomlins was very detailed in her narrative. I appreciated her involvement. I felt like telling this tale was a part of her life for quite some time. I don't see how she could have left anything out. Excellent job!

Die in Paris was a very interesting read about an individual I had never heard of. I enjoyed reading about Petiot's childhood and upbringing and how that shaped him into the awful man that he was.

Thank you to Netgalley and Raven Crest Books for this ARC!

This was an interesting read and educational as I had no idea of this part of history.

Thanks to Netgalley for an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Die in Paris is an exhaustive look at a heinous killer in France. Tomlins provides excruciating details into the macabre murders performed by the doctor, who appeared as an average citizen. Almost too detail is given. Sometime I felt as if I were swimming in a sea of facts. It was Interesting to read the details of his execution by guillotine.

True crime books should be exciting, especially when dealing with a serial killer. Although this started out as an interesting book, it quickly got mired in relentless detail. When will authors learn that even though they have a mountain of information they have to pick and choose and select only the most pertinent information. AND, where was the editor, who is supposed to help the authors tighten up their work?

Die In Paris is a great book about the demon doctor Marcel Petiot who committed mass murder under the cover of the chaos of occupied Paris during WW2 and was suspected of having more victims prior to moving to the capital.
Author Marilyn Z Tomlins has obviously meticulously researched her subject and the book reads like a novel from Petiot's birth to his execution. From an early age Petiot's behaviour was often bizarre and disturbing ,something that didn't change throughout his life. The big question at his trial was,"is he mad or bad"?
Possibly the cruellest aspect of his murder spree in Paris was that supposedly he ran an escape like for Jews wanting to flee the Nazis in Paris. People literally walked into a grisly fate thinking the good Doctor was saving their lives.
I read a lot of true crime but have to admit I'd never heard of Petiot and his house of horrors until I read Die In Paris. A very good read about a very complex,and unhinged character .

Thanks to Marilyn Z Tomlins,Raven Crest Books and Netgalley for the review copy.

Review Now On Amazon

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author writes the tale because she found him “ghoulishly fascinating” – she “does not analyse or judge him” just "leaves the reader to make up their own mind”. I had never heard of the man before – but reading this book which recounts how a full blown psychopath operated in plain sight for years unchecked is like watching the proverbial train crash in slow motion.
In March 1944 police receive reports of dreadful burning smells coming from an empty building. Things are sensitive it lies next door to a Gestapo garage in occupied Paris. 2 police investigate and find the house strewn with partly opened suitcases with clothes and belongings and in the back area they discover human body parts being burnt, more in a pit covered in quick lime and others in heaps. They report it – and then decide to strategically disappear until after the war.
With German permission the situation will be investigated and a daily account is given here of the police attempts to determine what has been going on and who the (possibly hundreds of) bodies were. Various claims are made of killing of collaborators and Gestapo spies, but it becomes clear that it was a house used for some years in a mock “escape line” used by rich Jews, career criminals and others as the German grip on the City became tighter. The early victims were dumped elsewhere, but ironically as Dr Petiot was imprisoned by the Gestapo bodies began to build up in the house so by 1944 attempts were made to get rid of them.
Flash back to the early life of Dr Petiot – his early childhood abusing animals, erratic and violent behaviour, service in WW1 until he was apparently injured and used “shell-shock” to get himself out of the front line and into a war pension. Life in asylums morphed into supposed training (not) as a doctor. He sets up a rural practice leaving a trail of missing inconvenient people and on to Paris to set up a successful practice where it seems he was involved in illegal practices, tax avoidance, drug misuse and more deaths before he moved onto “greater” extremes.
By the time the reader reaches details of the trial of 27 murders – more boasts Petiot – it is increasingly hard to process the extent of what was happening, the casual extinction of dozens of people. But also the number of people who knew what was happening and did nothing to stop it.
It is clear from the research that whenever challenged he proved both an unscrupulous and extravagant liar. But nevertheless got away with his crimes again and again. Together this makes an extraordinary tale of a violent psychopath killing without constraint or restraint. He was identified as mentally unstable a number of times; but always left free to operate. Often with the collusion of family and associates who must have understood at least part of what he was doing.
You could read this as a classic of the failure of systems to record, identify, or prevent crime over many decades – a justice system that was patently flawed and unfit for purpose. But with the Second World War the new “rules” meant that Dr Petiot had even more opportunities to flourish as an amoral criminal. Yes, he tried to avoid conviction and execution by a combination of lies, bluster and counter attacks when caught. But as he said under investigation against the scale of the killings elsewhere where was his crime?
Overall this is a strange read – peering into the depths of a psychopath. But behind that is the history of failure of legal and police procedures that allowed him to thrive for so long. He lived within broader communities that also failed to prevent his behaviour as it became more and more extreme. It could be said that both the wars have him the chance to flourish and escape justice, but analyse the evidence and you might find it much more than that.