WardenRed reviewed City of Light, City of Poison by Holly Tucker
None
5 stars
Late seventeenth-century Paris assaulted the senses and rattled the nerves.
This read like a mixture of a well-crafted political thriller and a murder mystery. I rarely expect such total page-turners from non-fiction. So glad a friend recommended this book to me.
A lot of the events depicted here were familiar to me already, but Holly Tucker digs deeper into the nuances than any other author/historian I've read. I loved the vivid portrayal of all the historical personalities here; they were truly brought to life on the page. What's more, I couldn't get enough of the author's depiction of historical Paris. From the halls of Versailles to the streets around the Court of Miracles, the city felt like a character in its own right. A great work of historical true crime; I hope this isn't the only book Tucker has written, because I want more!
Read for the following October …
Late seventeenth-century Paris assaulted the senses and rattled the nerves.
This read like a mixture of a well-crafted political thriller and a murder mystery. I rarely expect such total page-turners from non-fiction. So glad a friend recommended this book to me.
A lot of the events depicted here were familiar to me already, but Holly Tucker digs deeper into the nuances than any other author/historian I've read. I loved the vivid portrayal of all the historical personalities here; they were truly brought to life on the page. What's more, I couldn't get enough of the author's depiction of historical Paris. From the halls of Versailles to the streets around the Court of Miracles, the city felt like a character in its own right. A great work of historical true crime; I hope this isn't the only book Tucker has written, because I want more!
Read for the following October 2020 readathons:
- Gothtober2020: Foreign Country
