city of light city of poison by holly tucker

Tucker's way with a lavish description will have you planning your all-star adaptation of the book.

Translated by Yvette Siegert, this collection recalls a collusion of whimsy and gravitas apparent in Cortázar's work while simultaneously presenting the poet's own unique lyric sensibility., City of Light, City of Poison a cop drama of sorts, intermingled with a historian's tenacious pursuit of the evidence. Based on thousands of pages of court transcripts and La Reynie's compulsive note-taking, as well as on letters and diaries, Tucker's riveting narrative makes the fascinating, real-life characters breathe on the page. From secret courtrooms to torture chambers, City of Light, City of Poison is a gripping true-crime tale of deception and murder. As La Reynie continues his investigations, he is haunted by a single question: Could Louis's mistresses could be involved in such nefarious plots? The pragmatic and principled La Reynie must decide just how far he will go to protect his king. Nobles settle scores by employing witches to craft poisons and by hiring priests to perform dark rituals in Paris's most illustrious churches and cathedrals. In a world where a royal glance can turn success into disgrace, the distance between the quietly back-stabbing world of the king's court and the criminal underground proves disturbingly short. As he exposes their unholy work, he soon learns that no one is safe from black magic-not even the Sun King. He unearths a tightly knit cabal of poisoners, witches, and renegade priests. The fearless La Reynie pursues criminals through the labyrinthine neighborhoods of the city.

Assigned by Louis XIV, Nicolas de La Reynie begins by clearing the streets of filth and installing lanterns throughout Paris, turning it into the City of Light. Appointed to conquer the 'crime capital of the world,' the first police chief of Paris faces an epidemic of murder in the late 1600s.

City of light city of poison by holly tucker