The Typewriter and the Guillotine: An American Journalist, a German Serial Killer, and Paris on the Eve of WWII

by Mark Braude

As thrilling as Agent Josephine and A Woman of No Importance, the propulsive untold story of a trailblazing female New Yorker reporter in France on the eve of WWII who begins sounding the alarm as a German serial killer stalks the Parisian streets, from award-winning author Mark Braude.

In 1922, Janet Flanner arrived in Paris with dreams of writing about “Beauty with a capital B” for The New Yorker. Then a niche publication, her employer was self-consciously apolitical, seeking only breezy reports on French art and culture. As signs of frightening extremism, economic turmoil, and widespread discontent became apparent, Flanner ignored her editor’s directives, reinventing herself, her assignment, and The New Yorker in the process.

Working tirelessly to alert American readers to the dangers of German’s chancellor and the worrying developments across the Atlantic, Flanner soon became enmeshed in the disturbing criminal case of a man who embodied all of the darkness she was being forced to confront. The child of two proud Nazis, Eugen Weidmann’s crimes were explicitly political and for Flanner, who covered Weidmann’s crimes, capture, and trial, the case served as a guiding metaphor through which to understand the tumultuous years through which she’d just passed and to prepare herself for the dangers to come.
 
Set against the epic backdrop of pre-WWII Europe, THE TYPEWRITER AND THE GUILLOTINE tracks how Weidmann’s case and the political turmoil of the period transformed Flanner from naïve writer to the hard-hitting journalist who exposed Americans to the warning signs of WWII.
 

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Journalism, Crime

432 pages, Hardcover

Expected publication January 20, 2026

About the author

MARK BRAUDE is a cultural historian and the author of KIKI MAN RAY: ART, LOVE, AND RIVALRY IN 1920S PARIS (W.W. Norton, Summer 2022), THE INVISIBLE EMPEROR: NAPOLEON ON ELBA FROM EXILE TO ESCAPE (Penguin Press, 2018), and MAKING MONTE CARLO: A HISTORY OF SPECULATION AND SPECTACLE (Simon & Schuster, 2016). His books have been translated into several languages.

Mark was a 2020 visiting fellow at the American Library in Paris and was named a 2017 NEH Public Scholar. He is the recipient of grants from the Robert B. Silvers Foundation, the Canada Council for the Arts, the de Groot Foundation, and others. He has been a postdoctoral fellow at Stanford University’s Center for Spatial and Textual Analysis (CESTA) and a lecturer in Stanford’s departments of Art History, French, and History.

Mark was born in Vancouver and went to college at the University of British Columbia. He received an MA from NYU’s Institute of French Studies and a PhD in History and Visual Studies from USC. He has written for The Globe and Mail, The Los Angeles Times, The New Republic, and others. He lives in Vancouver with his wife and their two daughters.

Reviews

[Frank · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have to admit that I was not sure that I wanted to read The Typewriter and the Guillotine, a non-fiction book which tells stories of two people in Paris at the outbreak of WWII, Janet Flanner (the “Typewriter”), an American who wrote letters about the French for The New Yorker magazine, and Eugen Weidmann (the “Guillotine”), a German serial killer. I loved the cover and the description of the book but was not drawn in by the title. The deciding factor to invest the time to read it for me was my love of Erik Larson’s “The Devil in the White City”, a book which also blended two separate stories which shared a time and place.

I enjoyed this book but not to the extent to which I had hoped. While I did enjoy reading about both main characters, I found Weidmann’s part of the story more interesting than Flanner’s. The fact that significantly more of the book is devoted to Flanner only left me disappointed that the mix was not more 50/50. Also, as their two stories were only slightly connected, I wondered if I might have enjoyed two standalone books more than this combined one.

One thing I enjoyed was getting to learn about life in Paris just before the start of the war, when Flanner found herself writing about politics more and arts and culture less. The author does a good job of describing what she went through and the danger in which she might have found herself.

I do believe the book was well-researched. I’d recommend it for people interested in learning about the WWII time frame and how the rise of Hitler was witnessed by people of neighboring countries. I’m concerned that people interested in true crime stories might find themselves wishing that there was more discussion of Weidmann.

Thanks to Grand Central Publishing and NetGalley for providing me the opportunity to read The Typewriter and the Guillotine. The above opinions are my own.

[Janine · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received this ARC from NetGalley and the publisher, Grand Central Publishing, for an honest review. This book is filled lots of post WWI and pre-WWII history surrounding an untold story a “trailblazing” New Yorker writer, Janet Flannery, who sounded the warning of the rise of Hitler and fascism. She lived in Paris during the heady times of the mid-1920s hobnobbing with the likes of Ernest Hemingway and the Murphys of F. Scott Fitzgerald fame and chronicling the devastating effects of WWI. Leaping into the 1930s, through German contacts she was able to experience the Nuremberg rally and the 1936 Olympics. It was her three piece New Yorker expose of her times in Germany that alerted America to a creeping danger. It was during this time that she also became gripped by a disturbing series of crimes by a German national who became the last man to be publicly executed by guillotine (that execution was in 1977 until capital punishment was ended in 1981). She covered the trial and execution. This was fascinating book. My only criticism is that I think rather than separating the two stories (Flannery and the killer), it might have just been better to intertwine the murder coverage as part of what is really a biography of Janet Flannery. Learned a lot and would recommend.

[E. · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an interesting non-fiction about an American journalist in Paris documenting Paris, London and Germany pre WWII and the story of a serial killer. It reads a bit like Devil in the White City by Erik Larson. The early parts of the book focus on the gay, fun Parisian life and slowly get darker as war approaches. The author clearly did a huge amount of research and captured the sentiment of people living in Europe at the time through the journalist’s true reporting in The New Yorker. Juxtaposing the serial killer story seemed a bit forced. The killer was German and because of the politics at the time, ties were made to the conflicts of fascism, communism and democracy. It seemed a bit odd to me to keep switching from one story to the next, leaving both a bit under-served. Some parts of the book moved swiftly while others dragged. Because the journalist left Paris before the war started in earnest and returned after liberation it felt like a huge gap. The author took on a bit much I felt. Is it a biography of the journalist and her journey as a writer, a reporting of prewar Europe in terms of culture and politics, or a story of murder and crime. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it felt forced. So I give this 3.5 stars.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC. All opinions are my own.

[Kelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fledgling writer Janet Flanner headed off to Paris to escape her mundane middle class life. She succeeded a bit more wildly than she imagined. When she arrived in 1925, Europe was still recovering from WWI and an unstable Germany already threatened the shaky peace. This is a fascinating, and quite frankly terrifying, journey to go on with Flanner considering it mirrors our current political climate.

As a history fan, I adored that this book covered an in-between time. We have a plethora of WWII books and a good amount of WWI, but the time in the middle is mostly ignored. This portion of Flanner's life was both pivotal to her development as a writer and correspondent and to the transition of Europe from one war to another.

There were some interesting facts I think could have been explored a bit deeper. For instance, Janet is a nice common name. Her mother's name is Mary. Her sister's name is Hildegarde. Talk about a break in pattern. What is that about? Everything that was discussed was more service level with Flanner when I really wanted a deeper dive.

At first I enjoyed the back and forth between Flanner chapters and Eugen Weidmann, the murderer featured in the subtitle, chapters. I expected some sort of intersection where the two met and the story really found its purpose. But that never happened. Flanner did report on the murder trial, but only briefly as her focus was elsewhere. I'm not sure why the author chose to combine these two disparate storylines when they would have been more successful as two separate books.

Overall, I quite enjoyed this glimpse into a woman's life from a century ago as she struggled with a changing world. As she watched war approaching yet again, she said multiple times in her many letters home, "I don't understand men." So relatable. Some things never change.

[CONSTANCE · Rating 4 out of 5]

In the vein of “Devil in the White City”, this non-fiction story centers on two quite different events happening in the same city. A female journalist goes to Paris in 1925 to write articles for a new magazine called The New Yorker (which people question if it will make it). She’s trying to keep her “Letter from Paris” articles non-political, but as the years go by, the things going on in Germany with this very scary man named Adolf Hitler make that more and more difficult even as she feels the French seem to be putting their head in the sand and not acknowledging what’s happening.
Meanwhile a very different story is also playing out in Paris and that story centers on a young German man who goes on a killing spree.

[Madeline Caldwell · Rating 5 out of 5]

In the beautifully entwined narrative, a queer icon of letters is brought to life against the backdrop of Europe on the brink of fascism. Flanner comes into her own amidst love affairs, fabulous parties and growing insidious shadow, one mirrored by a serial killer born out of the nazi regime. The book deftly weaves these stories together, letting the growing tension of the time mirror the escalation of violence both from our killer and between political adversaries. In the middle is an intrepid reporter finding her voice. A brilliant read that unexpectedly overlaps with our current political climate.

[Dr G · Rating 5 out of 5]

very intriguing

[Glenn Stenquist · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very engrossing and interesting. Worth your time.