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

by Dorothy Hoobler, Thomas Hoobler

Turn-of-the-century Paris was the beating heart of a rapidly changing world. Painters, scientists, revolutionaries, poets -- all were there. But so, too, were the Paris was a violent, criminal place, its sinister alleyways the haunts of Apache gangsters and its cafes the gathering places of murderous anarchists.

In 1911, it fell victim to perhaps the greatest theft of all time -- the taking of the Mona Lisa from the Louvre. Immediately, Alphonse Bertillon, a detective world-renowned for pioneering crime-scene investigation techniques, was called upon to solve the crime. And quickly the Paris police had a a young Spanish artist named Pablo Picasso....

Genres: History, Nonfiction, True Crime, Crime, France, Art, Mystery

384 pages, Hardcover

First published April 3, 2009

About the author

Dorothy and Thomas Hoobler, a married couple who have written numerous books together, were drawn to this story of great writers inspiring each other collaboratively. Their most recent novel, In Darkness, Death, won a 2005 Edgar Award. They live in New York City.

Series:
* Samurai Detective
* Century Kids
* Her Story
* Images Across The Ages
* American Family Album

Reviews

[Madeline · Rating 3 out of 5]

A few weeks ago, when I was visiting home for a family event, I once again stayed in a County Inn and Suites. And once again I took advantage of their overly trusting nature and stole a book from the bookshelf in their lobby. (Okay, technically it wasn't stealing, since their policy clearly states that you can take a book and return it the next time you're in one of their hotels, so if I'm ever in a County Inn and Suites again, and if I happen to have this book with me, I will gladly return it. Sorry guys: I am the reason we can't have nice things.)

As soon as I saw this, I knew I had to read it immediately. Paris? Crime? Belle Epoque? Detectives? Yes, yes, yes, and YES.

The book covers roughly the period from the late 1880's to the beginning of World War One in Paris, and focuses on several notable crimes (most notably, the theft of the Mona Lisa in 1911) that were solved using then-revolutionary techniques, such as fingerprinting and mugshots, that would become the basis for modern criminology. The crimes include a bank robbing gang (who were the first criminals to employ getaway cars, which at the time just plain blew people's minds), several female murderers, and the infamous Mona Lisa theft. There's a section on court procedure of the time, where the authors describe in detail the court case of a woman who was accused of murdering her husband and her mother and how the suspect's gender influenced the ruling, and they include lots of good stories about the real-life detectives who were the basis for characters like August Dupin and Sherlock Holmes. My favorite was Alphonse Bertillon, whose idea to keep records of criminals' features in order to identify them in the future is still referred to as bertillonage. He also basically invented the mugshot, and his requirements for police officers and detectives are fascinating in themselves - police officers had to be at least 5'10, in order to be intimidating, but detectives couldn't be over 5'7, because they had to be inconspicuous. The book also discusses detective stories of the age and how the fictional criminals and detectives in these stories often reflected or even influenced real life cases.

It's a really interesting study of the beginning of modern criminology, and the only thing that stopped me from giving this four stars is the structure of the book. The Mona Lisa theft is the big draw of the book, being the biggest criminal case of the era, resulting in a half-assed attempt to tie the other big cases featured to the theft. The book opens with the circumstances of the theft, then forgets it completely for several chapters as the authors focus on other (equally interesting) things like detectives of the time and criminal procedure. Then suddenly we're back on the Mona Lisa case, and because Picasso and Apollinaire were briefly suspects in the case, the authors decide that they need to spend a long chapter explaining the history of the Impressionist and Surrealist art movements. It was weird and unnecessary, especially considering that Picasso and Apollinaire were suspects for like two days, and it stopped the book in its tracks. Then after that confusing section, we forget about the Mona Lisa case again, so the authors can talk about something else for a while, and the book ends with the painting being found and an examination of the possible motives behind the theft.

The theft of the Mona Lisa is interesting, certainly, but the book suffers from the authors' attempts to structure the entire subject around it. It would have been better if they had treated it like all the other cases in the book: devote a few chapters to the theft, the suspects, and the recovery of the painting (it could still be the longest section in the book, since it's the big draw) and then move on to the other cases. They shouldn't have tried to stretch the story of the theft over the entire book, since it just serves to confuse the reader and diminish the significance of the other cases featured.

[Autumn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting book. The initial crime and premise of the book is the theft of the Mona Lisa from the Louvre in the early 1900s. However this isn’t what I would say the book is about. The authors did a fantastic job of conveying the depth of sin surrounding the culture of Paris from ~1880 to 1920. The book isn’t just about the sin of Paris. I was amazed by how many things were started, invented, or developed in Paris that we use today or see the influence of. In addition the number of famous people whose paths crossed in Paris at this time was interesting.

CW- the culture of historical Paris includes much sexual sin. The authors don’t describe anything but just the mention of these sins is worthy of a warning.

[Marie Burton · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Crimes of Paris was an interesting read and I was not disappointed. Furthermore, it was unexpected. If you judge a book based on its cover, then you will not be disproved in this case. Yet, if you read the back then you may be in for a surprise. The Amazon summary (and on my back cover) is: “Turn-of-the-century Paris was the beating heart of a rapidly changing world. Painters, scientists, revolutionaries, poets - all were there. But so, too, were the shadows: Paris was a violent, criminal place, its sinister alleyways the haunts of Apache gangsters and its cafes the gathering places of murderous anarchists. In 1911, it fell victim to perhaps the greatest theft of all time - the taking of the Mona Lisa from the Louvre. Immediately, Alphonse Bertillon, a detective world-renowned for pioneering crime-scene investigation techniques, was called upon to solve the crime. And quickly the Paris police had a suspect: a young Spanish artist named Pablo Picasso...”

I was expecting the fact that Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa painting was stolen to be the central focus. But since the actual story of the crime was simpler than many had theorized this becomes a history of criminology in France as it details many crimes, criminals and the detectives, studying the evolution of each of these topics. It discusses notorious crimes that changed the path of criminology, intriguing the reader to delve into 19th and 20th century France. If you like the CSI television series for its technology, it is really inspiring to learn from the beginning just how crime solving techniques have evolved. As stated in the summary, we are taught about the painters, scientists, murderers, revolutionaries etc. Many details are given about the economic and social atmosphere of Paris so that we could better understand the harsh reality of the time.

The book focuses on major figures of the time such as Alphonse Bertillon, who was famous for how he started cataloging criminals. He also testified in the famous Dreyfus Affair which caused a stir with its political scandal damaging his good reputation. We look at figures of note such as Pablo Picasso and Matisse to follow the art culture of France, and the wild murderers and thieves of the Bonnot Gang.

What makes this book better than ordinary is **********

** FOR MORE, PLEASE VISIT THE BLOG ENTRY AT http://burtonreview.blogspot.com/2009... AT THE BURTON REVIEW

THANKS FOR READING!

[BAM doesn’t answer to her real name · Rating 3 out of 5]

True Crime Commemoration # 22
Setting: 1911 Paris
RTC

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this book fascinating. It talks about the theft of the Mona Lisa and keeps coming back to that theme throughout the book but that is not really what the book is about. It starts by setting the scene of Paris and the social and political climate at the time. It talks about art, and how it was changing, and the emergence of cubism. It talks about the life of Pablo Picasso and his friends and contemporaries. And it talks a lot about crime and how that was changing too. From the first time a car was used as a get away vehicle to the first private detective to the beginnings of the use of science to solve crimes. Now, normally, I would think that there were too many vastly different topics to fit together in one book. But I did not find that the case here. None of the pieces made you wonder what they were doing there. Instead you saw how they all were interconnected. There were no improbable jumps or abrupt changes of subject as if the author was trying to shoehorn in every piece of information they happened to know no matter how unrelated. And there is a lot of information. You can tell that a lot of time went into researching this book. But even though there is a lot to digest I found the writing easy to read, it didn’t get dull or dry and it flowed well so the book moved quickly. I loved learning all the little tidbits like how cubism found its way into the military, or when the word detective was first used. I also liked that it wasn’t all just facts and dates and that you got to see some of the events in the context of people’s lives, having seen their background and how they got to where they were. There is a part of this book that is true crime in that it talks about a lot of cases and gives some specifics of each one, but it is also a history and talks about the anarchists and the political climate, it explores the culture of the time in the talk about art and the love of crime fiction. It may not be for everyone but I think it has appeal for several different interests. I don’t think you ever really forget the fact that this is a non-fiction book but at the same time it is definitely a good story. And it may not be filled with heart stopping thrills but there is a bit of mystery about it and it does keep you interested until the very end.

[Tim Martin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very enjoyable popular history! Ostensibly, the book is about the August 21, 1911 theft of the Mona Lisa from the Louvre in Paris, the theft itself, how the theft was discovered, how the authorities reacted, how the public reacted, the suspects, those involved in the search, its eventual recovery, and unresolved (even to this day) mysteries about the theft. Though the book is definitely not a dedicated history of the famed painting, the reader does learn some about its history, called La Joconde by the French and La Gioconda by the Italians, as the woman in the painting is considered to be Lisa Gherardini, who in 1495 married Francesco del Giocondo of Florence, with Leonardo beginning work on the painting in 1503 when Lisa was twenty-four years old. The reader also learns something of the Louvre and how to my surprise the Mona Lisa was one of many items stolen from the famed art museum in those years (and also to my surprise how easy these thefts were).

I would say while the theft and recovery of the Mona Lisa were well covered and interesting reading, it was maybe a quarter or less of the book. A good part of the book talked about the Paris and to lesser extent France of this time, Belle Époque or La Belle Époque, “The Beautiful Era,” basically France from after the end of the Franco-Prussian War in 1871 to the start of World War I in 1914. Good introduction to how this was an interwar period with its own cultural, political, social, and artistic characteristics and its star was the Paris of this time, the Paris of (in 1900) “Henri Matisse and Paul Cézanne in art, Claude Debussy in music, Henri Poincaré in mathematics, Marcel Proust in literature, and the Curies, Marie and Pierre, in science.” People one might run into might include Franz Kafka, Claude Monet, Lenin, Gertrude Stein (featured a few times), and the Spaniard once known as Pablo Ruiz, who later became Picasso. Picasso and his friend poet and writer Guillaume Apollinaire feature prominently in the book, both of whom were great windows into La Belle Époque, both of whom had their role to play in the birth of Surrealism and Cubism, which occurred during the time and the author spends time on, but also both were connected to the theft of the Mona Lisa.

The star of the book arguably is conveyed in the title, the crimes of Paris. Well over half the book I would say is on either crimes of France in general and Paris specifically of the time. There was riveting coverage of a number of famous court cases including the Dreyfus affair, the Meg Steinheil murder trial, the Henriette Caillaux murder trial, and the story of the Bonnot Gang, a group of anarchist bank robbers that was the first ever anywhere to use a getaway car, and indeed in an era when policemen were still on foot or horseback and used revolvers, the gang made headlines by using not only a series of stolen cars but also repeating rifles. The book covers French cultural and literary attitudes towards crime, with French public especially absolutely eating up stories of crime, covering such things as fait divers (sensational stories of crime and scandal, printed by newspapers though more in a style of fiction than typical journalism), feuilletons (another popular feature of French newspapers, serialized fictional crime stories inspired by fait divers), and also the literary history of detective stories, from the first ever modern detective story (“first modern detective story, in which the central character’s importance lies in his ability to detect, was written by an American, Edgar Allan Poe”), to Monsieur Lecoq, first appearing in 1865 and the creation of Emile Gaboriau (with Gaboriau regarded as the father of the modern police procedural, and as since Poe only wrote short stories, the father of the modern detective novel). It was fascinating to read about French attitudes towards the characters in such stories (and why they were), with the public’s sympathy heavily towards the criminals, with this reaching its height with Maurice Leblanc and his stories of Arsene Lupin, gentleman-cambrioleur (“gentleman burglar”), a completely amoral character, only in it for himself, “young, handsome, daring,” whose exploits where he outsmarted the authorities endeared him to readers, and with the Fantomas stories by Artheme Fayard, who was essentially an anarchist, “virtually impossible to capture or stop.”

A figure that gets a lot of space early in the book, not only for his own right but how he inspired such literary creations as Lecoq, was the fascinating man who deserves his own book, known as Eugène-François Vidocq (1775 – 1857), a French criminal who became a renowned criminalist. He in fact is considered to be the father of modern criminology as well as being the founder and first director of France’s national criminal investigative agency, the Sûreté, head of the first known private detective agency and indeed the world’s first private detective. The author also discussed how Vidocq inspired a number of writers including Victor Hugo, Edgar Allan Poe, and Honoré de Balzac.

Also covered are Mathieu Joseph Bonaventure Orfila (“father of toxicology”), Jean Alexandre Eugene Lacassagne (“father of forensic science”), and especially Alphonse Bertillon (1853-1914), essentially inventor of biometrics, using a system called anthropometry or bertillonage that required a series of measurements for each criminal as well as use of a standardized system of describing facial features so that criminals could be identified later, the first ever scientific system ever used to identify criminals, only later replaced by fingerprints. Bertillon was also the inventor of the mug shot. He was an interesting figure, who contributed a lot to criminology, solved many of crimes, but sadly resisted both fingerprints replacing anthropometry and also gave bad testimony at the Dreyfus affair, which he stubbornly refused to withdraw even when overwhelming evidence later showed his testimony was flawed.

Few complaints about the book. I do think the author seemed to me to set up Bertillon as THE person to be at the front of finding the Mona Lisa, but he wasn’t. No less fascinating to read about mind you. The vast majority of the multiple other criminal cases covered were often quite fascinating, though one towards the end I though was a big longish in coverage. That’s about it. A very enjoyable read.

Has a section of black and white plates, end notes, an extensive bibliography, and an index.

[Christine · Rating 2 out of 5]

When deciding to read this book, pay close attention to the title - CRIMES of Paris is much more telling than the description on the book jacket. The book starts out talking about the famous theft of the Mona Lisa, which is why I chose this book, but it quickly dropped this topic and took us on a tour of crime in France.

The book covers everything from early forensic techniques to the first getaway car used in crime. There are some interesting components to the book. There are also, very long, drug-out stories about certain crimes that were disjointed and poorly tied to the original topic of the book - the Mona Lisa!

It felt like the author pitched a book about the theft of this prized masterpiece, got their advance, and then found there wasn't really enough to write an entire book. They decided to fill it up with other crimes and stories, but their efforts to create a seamless story fell short.

Even interesting moments like Picasso being questioned about the theft left me feeling "blah".

If you're looking for an anthology of crime in Paris, give this book a read. If you're looking for a story about the theft of the Mona Lisa, read the first chapter and the last two - skip the rest.

[Tom · Rating 1 out of 5]

Do you know who used to live in the Louvre? Do you know when the Belle Epoque was? Do you know Pablo Picasso's real name? I learned these things in the first few pages, then the wheels came off this book. Thank goodness I got from the library and didn't pay $$$ to buy a Kindle version on-line. I was expecting a real crime story, the Mona Lisa was stolen, France's best detectives would solve the case. Instead I got a book about the evolution of crime solving techniques and forensics in France around the time of Belle Epoque. The Mona Lisa case was a tiny part of this book, and the police . . . . well, I'll stop there. I still want to know how a single thief could carry the Mona Lisa, it's protective frames and glass to his getaway path. Also I learned what C.E. and B.C.E. means with regard to a date. To the author . . . Must you try to be so politically correct that you must remove any reference to Christianity by using this? Sheesh! Finally, if you ever wondered why Parisians are the way they are, you might get some insights from this book. Personally, I don't think the return on investment is worth it. Read something else!

[Nancy Oakes · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Crimes of Paris is an awesome book, not so much for the promised subject matter of the theft of the Mona Lisa from the Louvre, but because of the wealth of information around that particular focal point. From there the authors turn their attention to the state of crime detection up to and of that time period, not only in real life but in popular fiction as well. Then they launch into some other famous crimes and cases of murder and how they were ultimately solved.

The Hooblers certainly did a lot of research and did it well, but I don't think that this book will appeal to everyone in the general readership zone. It's more like a cultural history and will probably be picked up by people interested in the topic of true crime throughout history or people interested in the Mona Lisa and its history, or by readers who are looking for something new in the cultural history area.

Overall, a fine effort -- and I hope the authors will do well with this work. I can definitely recommend it.

[Liz Rizzo · Rating 4 out of 5]

I absolutely loved this book; it was completely fascinating from beginning to end. Deals with Paris during the Belle Epoche, including art, anarchy, and crime investigation, fiction, and how they intertwined. The book loosely frames around the theft of the Mona Lisa, and the opening description of said theft hooks you in right away. Fair warning, however, this book doesn't have ongoing narrative threads the way "The Devil in the White City" or even "The Worst Hard Time" do. (Both also excellent books, btw.) It's more vignette after vignette and makes no bones about being a history book. A really good one.

[Jules · Rating 1 out of 5]

Have you ever come back from a trip and dumped your suitcase out instead of unpacking, and then pulled things out of the pile as you went instead of putting them away? That’s essentially how this book goes about talking about Belle Epoque crime culture. There are some nuggets of real interest, but they are unfortunately buried beneath piles of dirt such as an oddly sanitized description of Picasso’s relationships with women, an unexplained focus on vegetarian diets, and an assertion (on page 257 of my hardcover copy) that in WWI, “Italy joined the fighting on the side of France, in part owing to the fraternal feelings engendered by the Mona Lisa affair.”

[Cecilia · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book begins with the famous theft of the Mona Lisa from the Louvre in Paris. However, the topics highlighted and described in some detail are more about artists and poets, scientists, and revolutionaries. The city is literally seething with violence, unrest and anarchy.

The author introduces a variety of police and quasi-police style officials investigating crimes of murder and robbery who invent a number of groundbreaking methods and procedures with the object of solving high profile crimes. Many of these methods are still used today, fingerprinting and facial profiling, to name just a few. Remember that this is the early 18th century and Paris didn't have an official police force although the famous Surete was founded partially in response to the level, violence, and complexity of the crimes which were commonplace in Paris of the time. We learn that Alphonse Bertillon invents the terms "detective" and there is lots of information about him.

This book is a fact based description of police work in Paris which follows murders committed by women, a group nicknamed Apaches, artists and noblemen by describing how they were investigated and solved. Very interesting reading which greatly expanded my respect for and knowledge of the precursors of modern-day detective work.

I found that at points in the book the author got so immersed in his descriptions that my eyes began to glaze over. It does give depth and breadth to the science of detecting. I enjoyed it.

[Camille Moffat · Rating 3 out of 5]

Actually a 2 star book but rating up to 3 because it was well-researched.

I so wanted to like this book!! I thought the book was going to be entirely about the history of the Mona Lisa being stolen in 1911 and its subsequent recapture. The introductory chapter held great promise! When they finally got to a chapter where it was found, it was very short and unfulfilling. All the other chapters were general histories of criminology at the time.

[Jacqui · Rating 3 out of 5]

5-Word Review:
Theft, murder, Parisian history, Overly-ambitious

Memorable Quotes

"Societies have the criminals that they deserve."

"…degenerates who had regressed on the scale of evolution—believed that all women were biologically inferior to men and hence inherently atavistic. This did not mean that all women would eventually become criminals, but that they were more susceptible than men to influences that could produce aberrant behavior. These influences were as varied as the menstrual cycle, the pressures of urban life, and even the faits divers crime stories found in the daily newspapers. Any of these might produce a passionate response that could drive women to criminal acts. So could feminism."

"Writing in 1902, a Dr. Séverin Icard cited the case of a young woman who regularly came to his office with a bewildering variety of symptoms. Finally, Dr. Icard noticed that the diseases these symptoms indicated were occurring in alphabetical order. Further investigation revealed that the patient had been receiving copies of a medical dictionary, issued in instalments, and so developed hysterical symptoms of the disease described in that month’s reading."

"There is no justice in France. There is only the revolver."

[Lancakes · Rating 4 out of 5]

From what I can tell, well researched. Describes Paris during la belle époque. Deftly weaves together art and science, beautifully describes the current events and attitudes of the era. Narrative loosely held together by the story of the theft of the Mona Lisa. Parts of it were boring to me, personally, because of where my interests lie. Was most engrossed by the middle section about the cultural obsession with crime and the birth of criminology, la sûreté, and crime fiction. Actually felt sad at the end when the epoch came to an end.

[Granny · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have read most of this information scattered through other books, so under other circumstances it would be nice to have it together in one place. But somehow the authors have managed to make subjects which would otherwise be fascinating as dull as dishwater. I really don't quite understand how they did it, I can read very dry material and still enjoy it but this book seems to limp painfully along with no payoff. I just can't recommend it.

[Earl · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is really about much more than crime, but about a glorious and vanished era. The Hooblers take several sensational crimes of the period and show how they really symbolize something much greater-- the zeitgeist of the French Third Republic. The anarchist movement, the Dreyfus affair, the birth of cinema, automobiles, cubism-- all of these are illustrated through crime. Fascinating.

[Neil · Rating 2 out of 5]

What could have been an interesting book, has been rendered quite dull and soulless, but that is just my opinion. Much of the information I had read elsewhere, but it did provide an insight into the beginnings of criminology and forensic sciences. It was just that the style of writing, which was haphazard, made this a cumbersome read.

[Kim · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was such a fascinating and completely captivating, charming, and detailed read. I learned a lot. Highly recommended!

[Eb0 · Rating 3 out of 5]

A lot of nonfiction books organize themselves around a single event and use it to create a microcosm of a time and place. The Crimes of Paris reads like a bunch of separate essays about life, art, and crime in Belle Epoque Paris that, in order to be published as such a book, were haphazardly stitched together using the theft of the Mona Lisa from the Louvre in 1911 as that putatively necessary "single event."

Each of the essays is engagingly written and thematically related to the Belle Epoque's political, artistic, and cultural relationship with crime. Some hit the high points of the famous criminal acts and cases of the era. Others address topics like the relationship between crime and the rising philosophy of anarchism; the popularity of crime fiction; the phenomenon of famous police detectives, who were like celebrity chefs of crime-solving; the art scene; criminology; and even politics. Some chapters concerned well-known and oft-revisited historical events, while others revealed angles on the Belle Epoque that were new to me; I found all engaging and worth reading.

But I would have enjoyed The Crimes of Paris more if each chapter did not attempt to connect its subject to the disappearance of the Mona Lisa. At best, most of these moments are irrelevant; at worst, they made an enjoyable series of essays seem like the worst-organized and most digressive book about a single event that I've ever read. The authors should just have committed to writing a Herbert Asbury-style portrait of the "laid" side of the "belle époque," rather than putting on airs.

[Kirsten · Rating 2 out of 5]

Paris war um die Jahrhundertwende für viele der Mittelpunkt der Welt. Wissenschaftler, Maler, Poeten- hier trafen sich alle. Aber die Stadt hatte auch ihre dunklen Seiten. Nirgendwo gab es so viele Gewalttaten wie hier. Diebe, Mörder, Anarchisten- sie bildeten den dunklen Kontrast zur lebendigen Künstlerszene. 1911 kam es zu einem Verbrechen, bei dem es zwar keinen Toten gab, das aber Paris und ganz Frankreich erschütterte wie kaum ein anderes: die Mona Lisa wurde aus dem Louvre gestohlen.

Auch wenn das Buch über die Verbrechen in Paris berichtet, läuft doch alles auf den Diebstahl der Mona Lisa hinaus. Natürlich ist zu dieser Zeit noch mehr passiert in Paris. Aber die Autoren schaffen es, in jedem Kapitel eine Verbindung zu eben diesem Diebstahl zu schaffen. Dass einiges davon sehr weit hergeholt ist, scheint nur mich zu stören. Die meisten anderen Verbrechen, über die berichtet wurde, wurden nur kurz
erwähnt, dann gab es oft nur sehr Allgemeines zu lesen.

Ich treffe in diesem Buch auf einen alten Bekannten: Alphonse Bertille, über den ich schon in "The killer of little shepherds" ausführlich gelesen habe. Seine Ermittlungsmethoden waren damals etwas ganz Besonderes und halfen bei der Auflösung zahlreicher Verbrechen. Der Teil, der sich mit ihm beschäftigt hat, war der interessanteste. Leider habe ich genau das schon einmal gelesen.

Fazit: ich bin mir sicher, dass Paris zu dieser Zeit eine sehr interessante Stadt war. Die Autoren haben es geschafft, den Eindruck zu vermitteln, als ob dort nur Anarchisten oder Gattenmörderinnen leben würden.

[Carl Brookins · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book begins with the theft of the Mona Lisa in 1911 from the Louvre. It ends only a few years later when an artist of some renown named Marcel Duchamp drew a mustache on a small reproduction of La Gioconda which, in effect, as the authors say, transformed the painting from a “masterpiece of Renaissance art to an icon of modernism.”
That was in 1919. A mere eight years had passed, during which Paris had experienced a World War and been the host to nearly every giant of science, literature, the arts and politics. It was an amazing time when Trotsky and Marx, Hemingway and Picasso and Cezanne met and drank and socialized in Montmartre and Montparnasse and attended original and often nasty short plays at the Grand Guiginol.
It was a period when the first professional private investigator appeared and the science of forensic investigation developed as a recognized arm of law enforcement. And it was a period during which some of the most vicious and creative gangs of criminals roamed the streets of the City of Lights.
The book is engagingly written and organized in a thoughtful way to encourage readers to delve more deeply into intriguing topics with voluminous notes, and an extensive bibliography. Yet, a reader who is only casually interested in the period and the players will find this book a fast and enjoyable read. But a casual reader will be drawn in, to the writing, the style, the language and the content. This is a fascinating work of great consequence.

[Peggy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was fine, sometime interesting and sometimes a slog. It is really a rundown of the big crimes in Paris during the Belle Epoque. For me, the issue was that it takes a mostly Wikipedia style form, so no real deep dives, and it covers so much that it circles back in time, mentions a name you read 75 pages ago and you're supposed to remember. What?!?

It does start with a crime I didn't know about: the heist of the Mona Lisa from the Louvre in 1911. The masterpiece was gone over two years before that crime was solved. This theft bookends the book; in between are tales of gangs, poisonings, more thefts, and scandalous trials. One interesting note is how popular guillotines were with the public. Even when they stopped detailing the time of executions and holding them at dawn, people would still figure it out and flock to watch.

There are also interesting details about Picasso, Appollinaire, Matisse, and Stein. Still, it reads like a quick overview of too much that needed more pages. That's on me--it is titled The CRIMES of Paris after all--but still I was ultimately disappointed.

[Peter Talbot · Rating 5 out of 5]

A survey of Criminal activity and the advances in detection in Paris in the Belle Epoque, wrapped in the details of the Giaconda (Mona Lisa) theft that took a decade to solve. The politics of Bertillonism vs. fingerprinting in the "measurement" of crime and the advancing science of forensic medicine is expediently and gracefully framed against the many changes in the world before the Great War. An extremely worthy read: recommended regardless of the genres that appeal to you. Great thanks to the Hooblers!

[Nate Hendrix · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book centers around the theft of the Mona Lisa but goes into crime and law enforcement in Paris around the turn of the century. The first getaway car and the first large scale use of fingerprints to fight crime. Since the Mona Lisa is involved quite a bit of the art world is also discussed. Interesting to read and I look forward to reading their other book about the writing of Frankenstein.

[Melanie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was good but kind of all over the place. It touches on the Mona Lisa theft in early 20th century Paris, it talks about famous detectives in fiction and reality, and it covers a multitude of smaller crimes/trials in France at the time. It's laid out oddly - I would rather the authors have written short, contained stories about each thing and then just collected them instead of what they did, which is try to connect everything. But ultimately interesting stuff in here!

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting, mainly as a snapshot of a particular time in history, especially the early days of forensic criminology and modern policing. It is fascinating to see how crime was investigated before the tools and techniques we now take for granted.
That said, the book feels a bit all over the place. It jumps between cases and ideas without a clear thread, which makes it harder to stay fully engaged. At times it reads more like a collection of historical anecdotes than a focused story.

[Sean McGinnis · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this book very scattered at first. The author did eventually start to tie some of the different threads together, though not all of them. Still, it was an interesting read about a fascinating time in the development of criminology and society in general.

[Ma'lis Wendt · Rating 3 out of 5]

Although the writing is not well done--the stories of Parisian crimes of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, including the theft of the Mona Lisa are interesting. The Hooblers also tell in detail the evolution of police detection work in France.

[Stephanie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Couldn't get into it. Maybe just my frame of mind. The first 5 pages had me, then 40 pages of general Paris history when all I wanted was to get back to the story. After that, it never really hooked me. Gave up halfway through