City of Light, City of Poison: Murder, Magic, and the First Police Chief of Paris by Holly Tucker

Final Rating: 3.7/5

“Half of the nobility have done the same thing, if I felt like talking. I’d ruin them all!”

   With a highly accessible narrative style, City of Light, City of Poison: Murder, Magic, and the First Police Chief of Paris invites the modern reader back to reinvestigate a true extravagant scandal that involved a web of: suspicious deaths, damaging accusations, painful confessions and lasting ciphers that have all become to be known under the bewitching title of The Affair of the Poisons (L'affaire des poisons). From 1677-1682 the city of Paris served as the backdrop to a deadly mystery that went unnoticed by many including medical professionals at the time, what was thought to be simply explained by gangrenous accumulations of bile or mistakes on inexperienced autopsy tables would soon be revealed in vile depositions to involve poisoned shirts and pulverized toads. As grisly as it all seems, those are all only parts of the baleful truths that Nicolas de La Reynie (the first police chief of Paris) would soon bring to light and the polite belief that stops at privilege or esteemed morals would be destroyed forever in society’s eyes.

  As fascinating as City of Light, City of Poison ended for this reader who confesses to seek out and collect subjects of dark history; I wanted more and for the stories or cases to go on beyond 54% on her kindle. I also thought the beginning a little uneven (along with some spellings and wished for more photos of key names and locations in the final pages) but appreciated the strange ambiance this work eventually brought allowing the curious to fall in step with La Reynie’s investigations and persistence in everything. I also found the back and forth private and public dramas presented from the halls of Versailles to the mean back alleys (and even in the dank reaches of frightening rooms meant for the Question) irresistibly beguiling but at the same time refined with an overall notable respectable approach. I admit not always easy topics to read in detail come about in the pages of City of Light, City of Poison: Murder, Magic, and the First Police Chief of Paris and it did have its unfortunate personal disappoints but Ms. Tucker has certainly researched and conjures all the distrustful notions from 17th-century Paris from watching what your wear, where you step and questioning who you can trust to rise and flame the mind to learn more about all presented and that’s why this title is staying on my unique shelves.

-purchased and read on kindle