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Die in Paris
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?
Marilyn Z. Tomlins has crafted an enthralling and suspenseful page-turner about one of history's most fascinating and notorious serial killers. This grisly World War Two era thriller will have you teetering on a slippery edge from beginning to end. Don Fulsom, veteran UPI and VOA White House correspondent, Washington, D.C. reporter, author of the bestseller Nixon’s Darkest Secrets: The Inside Story of America’s Most Troubled President, and a professor of government at American University in Washington.
With style, Marilyn Z. Tomlins’ Die in Paris, tells the incredible story of France’s most prolific murderer. Readers will discover a truly psychotic serial killer. J. Patrick O’Connor, author of the bestsellers The Framing of Mumia Abu-Jamal and of Scapegoat: The Chino Hills Murder and the Framing of Kevin Cooper, and the creator and editor of www.crimemagazine.com
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?
Marilyn Z. Tomlins has crafted an enthralling and suspenseful page-turner about one of history's most fascinating and notorious serial killers. This grisly World War Two era thriller will have you teetering on a slippery edge from beginning to end. Don Fulsom, veteran UPI and VOA White House correspondent, Washington, D.C. reporter, author of the bestseller Nixon’s Darkest Secrets: The Inside Story of America’s Most Troubled President, and a professor of government at American University in Washington.
With style, Marilyn Z. Tomlins’ Die in Paris, tells the incredible story of France’s most prolific murderer. Readers will discover a truly psychotic serial killer. J. Patrick O’Connor, author of the bestsellers The Framing of Mumia Abu-Jamal and of Scapegoat: The Chino Hills Murder and the Framing of Kevin Cooper, and the creator and editor of www.crimemagazine.com
428 pages, Paperback
First published August 10, 2010
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
July 14, 2019
My thanks go to Marilyn Z. Tomlins, Raven Crest Books and Netgalley for the copy of this book in exchange for my unbiased review.
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!
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!
July 8, 2019
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!
Thank you to Netgalley and Raven Crest Books for this ARC!
August 5, 2019
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.
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.
June 30, 2019
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. Thanks to NetGalley for the advance copy.
June 8, 2019
Very strange. Very dark. Traces the behaviour of a doctor before and during WWII. The twisting threads of Nazi occupation in Paris wind around the police and judiciary and other French collaborators, covert Resistance and the French criminal underworld. A perfect environment for a serial killer....
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 21, 2019
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.
May 9, 2014
Dr Marcel Petiot seems to be to the French what Jack the Ripper was to Victorian England. Both held the populace of their respective countries in a web of irresistible, if gruesome fascination. I confess though that I hadn’t heard of Dr Petiot.
Therefore, hats off to Marilyn Tomlins for a clearly thoroughly researched piece of journalism, although it has the readability of fiction. Knowing that it’s founded in truth makes this book all the more riveting though. As another reviewer has commented, murder (much less mass murder – in fact, in that respect I preferred the author’s splendid ‘Bella’) isn’t my cup of English tea either. But it was a gripping read, even though you knew the outcome. Both books evoke France in another era beautifully.
I liked the way Ms Tomlins avoided judgementalism, which would have been an obvious pitfall when writing about a psychopath. Her description of Petiot’s troubled, traumatic childhood is actually quite sympathetic, although she doesn’t of course condone his horrendous crimes, perpetrated against people fleeing from an even greater one. Her journalistic credentials show; she paints the unvarnished truth with admirable objectivity.
She largely spares us the Hows of his foul crimes. But then little was known of the means Petiot used, and the author avoids descent into crude speculative horror. Equally we are mostly spared the Whys (after all, how can anyone really second-guess the motives of Petiot at this distance in time) and Ms Tomlins sensibly avoids too much pseudo-psychology; too much conjecture. She leaves that to you.
If crime writing is your genre, do read this excellent book. It won’t disappoint. I really enjoyed it.
Therefore, hats off to Marilyn Tomlins for a clearly thoroughly researched piece of journalism, although it has the readability of fiction. Knowing that it’s founded in truth makes this book all the more riveting though. As another reviewer has commented, murder (much less mass murder – in fact, in that respect I preferred the author’s splendid ‘Bella’) isn’t my cup of English tea either. But it was a gripping read, even though you knew the outcome. Both books evoke France in another era beautifully.
I liked the way Ms Tomlins avoided judgementalism, which would have been an obvious pitfall when writing about a psychopath. Her description of Petiot’s troubled, traumatic childhood is actually quite sympathetic, although she doesn’t of course condone his horrendous crimes, perpetrated against people fleeing from an even greater one. Her journalistic credentials show; she paints the unvarnished truth with admirable objectivity.
She largely spares us the Hows of his foul crimes. But then little was known of the means Petiot used, and the author avoids descent into crude speculative horror. Equally we are mostly spared the Whys (after all, how can anyone really second-guess the motives of Petiot at this distance in time) and Ms Tomlins sensibly avoids too much pseudo-psychology; too much conjecture. She leaves that to you.
If crime writing is your genre, do read this excellent book. It won’t disappoint. I really enjoyed it.
April 20, 2013
Wartime Paris and the life of a serial killer
When we think of the war years our focus tends to be with the horrors of wartime battles, and it is easy to forget that for ordinary people in occupied lands other crimes still happened.
In Paris, under occupation, the French people remained strong. Their ability to keep quiet and forget incidents when convenient was very necessary, and the resistance managed to save many thousands of people because of this. However, under this cloak of secrecy, other crimes were committed, but none as horrendous as the mass murders committed by Dr. Marcel Petiot even now France’s most notorious serial killer.
This book is a thoroughly researched and an interesting study into the life of this serial killer. In its pages, we discover the making of the man, his relationships, and how he evolved into the cold, callous monster he became.
The detailed descriptions of life in Paris at this time and the thoughts and lives of its people make it a fascinating read for anyone with a love of wartime history.
In conclusion, this book makes you yearn to be able to wander down those same streets now, look at the locations and imagine being there then, stepping into the scenes which the author has so clearly laid before you.
When we think of the war years our focus tends to be with the horrors of wartime battles, and it is easy to forget that for ordinary people in occupied lands other crimes still happened.
In Paris, under occupation, the French people remained strong. Their ability to keep quiet and forget incidents when convenient was very necessary, and the resistance managed to save many thousands of people because of this. However, under this cloak of secrecy, other crimes were committed, but none as horrendous as the mass murders committed by Dr. Marcel Petiot even now France’s most notorious serial killer.
This book is a thoroughly researched and an interesting study into the life of this serial killer. In its pages, we discover the making of the man, his relationships, and how he evolved into the cold, callous monster he became.
The detailed descriptions of life in Paris at this time and the thoughts and lives of its people make it a fascinating read for anyone with a love of wartime history.
In conclusion, this book makes you yearn to be able to wander down those same streets now, look at the locations and imagine being there then, stepping into the scenes which the author has so clearly laid before you.
November 21, 2014
This is a fascinating account of Dr Marcel Petiot, a real-life serial killer who lived in Paris during the Second World War. Convincing rich people that he could smuggle them out of occupied France, together with their wealth, to Argentina, gave him the opportunity to kill and rob hundreds. When the bodies were discovered in a lime pit in the basement of one of his houses he claimed that he was with the Resistance, killing Gestapo agents and their collaborators. Some believed he was murdering people on behalf of the Gestapo. Either way, no one was prepared to come to the attention of the Gestapo, and the doctor continued his nefarious activities unhindered.
The book I read was written by Marylin Z. Tomlins. I have no idea why Greg Smalley's name is attached to this book on Goodreads.
JJ
The book I read was written by Marylin Z. Tomlins. I have no idea why Greg Smalley's name is attached to this book on Goodreads.
JJ
July 30, 2011
Crazy amazing true story of a serial killer, Marcel Petiot, during WWII France.
March 7, 2025
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.
Thanks to Netgalley for an eARC in exchange for an honest review.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews