Maeder's book is about such a remarkable scoundrel, such a tricky bastard, such an extravagantly rotten human being, and is so well-written, with so much involvement, so much tact and wit, that I read it with unwaning fascination and excitement. -- William Steig
Maeder takes the available information as far as it will go, but refrains from sensationalizing on the one hand and moralizing on the other. This book reads like a shocking psychological thriller, all the more powerful for being true. * Newsweek *
Author Maeder assembles a mass of detail about the shadowy life of the doctor, his victims, relatives and cohorts. Despite the many puzzles that swirled about Petiot's horrors and which persist to this day, the book is first-rate. * The Buffalo News *
Author Thomas Maeder handles his material perfectly. His low-key, matter-of-fact style perfectly frames the horror of the investigation and trial; there are none of the crime writer's usual slam-bang embellishments. Nor does he try to tie up all the loose ends with idle speculation and strained analysis. * Chicago Sun-Times *
Maeder's book, tight as a drum, is filled with interesting sidelights. These sidelights include a great many unanswered and unanswerable questions, but these, in Maeder's hands, merely add to the bizarre appeal of the case. * The Washington Post *
Maeder gives Dr. Petiot his due in a superb Grand Guignol sufficient to horrify the most avid devotee of true crime. Moreover, his charm and wit make delightful reading. And he provides an unforgettable glimpse of Parisian life during the Occupation and through the post-liberation political comedies. * The Dallas Morning News *
Thomas Maeder's excellent full-length study of the case makes a complicated story perfectly intelligible, and gives the best possible view of Petiot's personality. -- Julian Symons * The Times (UK), (London) *
The simple dogged psychopath is often deeply dull; his killings seem almost an existential necessity, something to define his life, to make him special, and their continuance is necessary to prolong that precariously established identity. Petiot was quite different, and this difference makes Thomas Maeder's lively and readable study of the case all the more gripping. It isn't easy not to succumb, as his victims did, to the bizarre, bullying charm of Marcel Petiot. -- Julian Barnes * Times Literary Supplement *
With the skill of a novelist, Maeder develops the case around the question that remains unanswered: Were the brutal murders of more than 60 victims the accomplishment of an ardent Resistance leader, as Petiot claimed, or the deeds of a demented and brilliantly resourceful scoundrel? * Saturday Review *
In the accomplished hands of Maeder, who interviewed the few surviving participants and had access to the official dossier, the case of Dr. Petiot becomes a spellbinding book of true crime. * The Atlanta Journal-Constitution *
