Little Demon in the City of Light ─ A True Story of Murder in Belle 夗oque Paris

"The thrilling--and so wonderfully French--story of a gruesome 1889 murder of a lascivious court official by a ruthless con man and his pliant mistress, an international manhunt, a sensational trial, and an inquiry into the limits of hypnotic power. In France at the end of the nineteenth century a great debate raged over the question of whether someone could be hypnotically compelled to commit a crime in violation of his or her moral convictions. When Alexandre-Toussaint Gouffe entered a Parisianbuilding at 3 rue Tronson Ducoudray for what he thought would be a delightful assignation with the comely young Gabrielle Bompard, only to be murdered--hanged!--by her and her ruthless companion Michel Eyraud, stuffed in a trunk, and dumped on a riverbank near Lyon, that question became the burning center of an inquiry into the guilt or innocence of a woman the French tabloids dubbed "The Little Demon.""--

A veteran international journalist who has worked in Beijing, Hong Kong, and Paris, along with assignments in New York, Chicago, and Washington, STEVEN LEVINGSTON is the nonfiction book editor of The Washington Post. He lives in Bethesda, Maryland, with his wife and two children.