Murders in Five Acts

Original title: Meurtres en cinq actes

Publication Date:

January 2025

Pages:

336

Original language and publisher

French | Actes Sud

Territories Handled

Netherlands, North America, Scandinavia

Genres

Crime & Thrillers, Historical Fiction

Murders in Five Acts

Original title: Meurtres en cinq actes

Synopsis

Paris, 1631. Sensational murders have thrown the capital into turmoil and no wonder – they are being committed on stage in the middle of performances. At the scene of each crime, two tarot cards are found and pamphlets attacking Renaudot, the physician and Richelieu protégé who has been tasked with creating France’s first newspaper.

Does the explanation lie in the rivalries between Paris’s various theatre troupes? Or is it a way for the murderer to get at Renaudot and therefore indirectly at the feared cardinal? And how can he possibly continue to get away with it when all of Parisian high society has its eyes riveted to the stage?

Grand Châtelet investigators Jacques Chevassut and Philippe de May are put on the case, but the further the investigation progresses, the murkier the waters become…