A book that I recently acquired from my sister-in-law, who got it in a neighborhood book swap. I was excited to find a Goodreads First Reads letter inside. It was hard to put it down, although at least part of what kept me going was a desire for answers thag no one ever got (the fact that not everything is explained is a frustrating aspect of true crime stories, but was more pronounced here). Petiot was clearly a monster, but the things that drove him and the identity and number of all his victims are known to him alone. The story reminded me somewhat of Dr. Holmes (the subject of Erik Larson's Devil in the White City) in terms of the setting, the ease of attracting victims, the large number of people affected, and the unclear motivation. An excellent reminder that serial killers are not a recent phenomenon, although the serious study of them is. If any of the current methods for handling these cases had been followed here, the details of the crimes would not be as vague and Petiot would be a well-known figure.

Meeting up with Mom Oyster for lunch. She expressed an interest in reading this book, so I will pass it on to her.

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Thanks Six. I was happy to see you today. It was so thoughtful of you to have noticed my interest in reading this book.

It does has an Erik Larson-like feel to it, also reminded me of Devil in the White City. The author was a European history teacher at the University of Kentucky, I guess that school's ok.