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Sign up todayCity of Light, City of Poison
This audiobook uses AI narration.
We’re taking steps to make sure AI narration is transparent.
Learn moreAppointed to conquer the “crime capital of the world,” the first police chief of Paris faces an epidemic of murder in the late 1600s. 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.
The fearless La Reynie pursues criminals through the labyrinthine neighborhoods of the city. He unearths a tightly knit cabal of poisoners, witches, and renegade priests. As he exposes their unholy work, he soon learns that no one is safe from black magic―not even the Sun King. In a world where a royal glance can turn success into disgrace, the distance between the quietly backstabbing world of the king’s court and the criminal underground proves disturbingly short. Nobles settle scores by employing witches to craft poisons and by hiring priests to perform dark rituals in Paris’ most illustrious churches and cathedrals.
As La Reynie continues his investigations, he is haunted by a single question: Could Louis’ mistresses be involved in such nefarious plots? The pragmatic and principled La Reynie must decide just how far he will go to protect his king.
From secret courtrooms to torture chambers, City of Light, City of Poison is a gripping true-crime tale of deception and murder. 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.
Holly Tucker is a professor of French and biomedical ethics and society at Vanderbilt University. She is the author of Blood Work: A Tale of Medicine and Murder in the Scientific Revolution, a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize.
Kate Reading is the recipient of multiple AudioFile Earphones Awards and has been named by AudioFile magazine as a “Voice of the Century,” as well as the Best Voice in Science Fiction & Fantasy in 2008 and 2009 and Best Voice in Biography & Culture in 2010. She has narrated works by such authors as Jane Austen, Robert Jordan, Edith Wharton, and Sophie Kinsella. Reading has performed at numerous theaters in Washington D.C. and received a Helen Hayes Award for her performance in Aunt Dan and Lemon. AudioFile magazine reports that, "With subtle control of characters and sense of pacing, Kate’s performances are a consistent pleasure."
Reviews
“Not only a serious, meticulously researched work of nonfiction, it is an irresistible story…full of danger, mystery, and excitement.”
“A stylish study of crimes committed by the high and mighty… Tucker writes with gusto…[and] finds high drama.”
“A cop drama of sorts, intermingled with a historian’s tenacious pursuit of the evidence…Fascinating.”
“An intriguing amalgam of historical evocation and crime narrative…Tucker tells the story as if it were a classic whodunit, bringing alive an extremely complicated and baffling series of events.”
“Conjures up seventeenth-century Paris and makes it seem close to the present day.”
“Most entertaining. Holly Tucker takes us into the Paris of muddy streets, overworked police inspectors, back alley abortions, and fiendish poisoners as she delivers the shocking details of one of history’s greatest scandals.”
“Tucker vividly brings to life a slice of Parisian history in this rigorously researched true-crime epic.”
“Provides stunning insights into the real filth of Louis XIV’s reign, gilded, as in the Sun King’s creation of Versailles, but rotten with duplicity and murder. Completely absorbing.”
“Tucker’s exposition is a true detective story of the finest kind…For anyone interested in the darker side of the Sun King’s reign, City of Light, City of Poison will not disappoint.”
“At once bewitching and chilling, the dark story of toxic intrigue, murder, and mayhem in the Sun King’s France reads like the most gripping thriller.”
“Imagine a novel full of sex and betrayal, conspiracy and politics, murder and magic, detective work and justice…This isn’t fiction: it just reads like it.”
“A fierce tale of conspiracy and retribution…[in which] even in gilded palaces the human psyche seems familiarly deceitful and self-justifying.”
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