The Crimes of Paris: A True Story of Murder, Theft, and Detection
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...
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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....
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Format: hardcover
ISBN:
9780316017909 (0316017906)
Publish date: April 27th 2009
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
Pages no: 384
Edition language: English
First off, thanks to the kind folks at Hachette Book Group for sending me an advance copy of this book to review! Keep on reading, there's a giveaway to follow the review!I have to come right out and say that I rarely read nonfictional works, which is a little embarrassing for me to admit, but there...
This book uses the theft of the Mona Lisa in 1911 as an opportunity to survey the crime scene of Paris 1896-1914. They look at the theft and then police techniques, notorious criminals, and famous cases. One error in the last chapter: they claim Dada started in Geneva rather than Zurich (I studied D...
I picked this book up because it was about the theft of the Mona Lisa from the Louvre at the turn of the century. I love books that deal with real art and/or artists wrapped into the fictional story. (suggestions always welcome) With this book I was slightly deceived, but very pleasantly so. The boo...