It is 1870, and Paris is in turmoil. As the social and political
turbulence of the Franco-Prussian War roils the city, workers starve to
death while aristocrats seek refuge in orgies and séances. The Parisians
are trapped like rats in their beautiful city but a series of gruesome
murders captures their fascination and distracts them from the realities
of war.The killer leaves lines from the recently deceased Charles
Baudelaire's controversial anthology Les Fleurs du Mal on each corpse,
written in the poet's exact handwriting. Commissioner Lefèvre, a lover
of poetry and a veteran of the Algerian war, is on the case, and his
investigation is a thrilling, intoxicating journey into the sinister
side of human nature, bringing to mind the brooding and tense atmosphere
of Patrick Susskind's Perfume.Did Baudelaire rise from the grave? Did he
truly die in the first place? The plot dramatically appears to extend as
far as the court of the Emperor Napoleon III. A vivid, intelligent, and
intense historical crime novel that offers up some shocking revelations
about sexual mores in 19th century France, this superb mystery
illuminates the shadow life of one of the greatest names in poetry.
