The Paris Enigma: A Novel

In the tradition of Caleb Carr’s The Alienist and Eric Larsen’s The Devil in the White City comes The Paris Enigma, a gripping tale of murder and the art of crime solving. Written in a strikingly original voice, and poignantly evoking a world about to lose its innocence forever, The Paris Enigma features two detectives who find themselves in a race against time around glorious fin de siècle Paris, encountering all manner of secret societies and solving philosophical puzzles, while also trying to save a dangerously beautiful woman. |

In the tradition of The Alienist and The Devil in the White City comes a gripping, atmospheric tale of murder and the art of crime solving.

Paris, 1889: in anticipation of the World's Fair and the opening of Monsieur Eiffel's tower, a society of the world's most famous detectives convenes as a single body for the very first time. Sent in place of a conspicuously absent Renato Craig, founding member of The Twelve, his novice assistant Sigmundo Salvatrio arrives, bearing a secret message for the brilliant, brooding Viktor Arzaky, Craig's best friend and the society's cofounder. When one of The Twelve is discovered murdered at the Tower's base—the first in a series of grisly slayings—it falls to Arzaky and Salvatrio, the last remaining student of Craig's famed Academy for Detectives in Buenos Aires, to find and stop the killer. But what the two discover as they race around fin-de-siècle Paris—encountering secret societies, philosophical puzzles, and an imperiled, dangerously beautiful woman—has shattering consequences that will alter the fate of their precious brotherhood forever.

|

“[An] outstanding puzzler. . . . De Santis adroitly explores such issues as the difference between image and reality while providing intelligent and entertaining discussions of alternate approaches to detection.” - Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“A sophisticated whodunit ...” - Daily News

“Entertaining .. . the [detectives and acolytes’] musings on the art of detecting provide many of the book’s most memorable passages.” - Time Out New York

” . . . a complex whodunit that provokes thought as well as entertainment, on subjects from waterproof shoeshine cream to ancient Greek physics. It fires multiple, intense bursts of crime stories at the reader, some only a page or so long. And it climaxes with serial murders that tie into the building of the Eiffel Tower and the Paris World’s Fair of 1889.” - Lisa Ko, author of The Leavers

“[A] beguiling historical whodunit . .. .” - New York Times Book Review

“Against the backdrop of the 1889 World’s Fair, detective’s assistant Sigmundo Salvatrio travels to Paris in his master’s stead for a mysterious (natch) gathering of a collective known as the Twelve Detectives. Murder and mayhem ensue. . . . colorful characters and cases create a hazy atmosphere of intelligent escapism. The real subject of the book is the mysterious, melancholic birth of modernity.” - Washington Post

“Luminous...a tightly spun thriller...Mr. De Santis effortlessly incorporates important historical events (the building of the tower and the World’s Fair) into his narrative, as well as capturing the turn-of-the-century uneasiness over the emergence of the machine age.” - Wall Street Journal