The Crime of the Boulevard

A body is found in a Parisian boarding house, and the quiet boulevard outside suddenly feels like the edge of something dark. M. Rovère, a man who kept to himself and his rooms, lies murdered and abandoned. His landlady Mme. Moniche discovers him and summons the police, but the case that arrives with them is far stranger than a simple killing. M. Bernardet, a determined officer with ambitions beyond his rank, takes charge of the investigation and finds himself drawn into Rovère's hidden life: the secrets, the debts, perhaps the lovers. What makes this particular murder different is Bernardet's unusual method. He believes photography might reveal what the naked eye cannot, that images of the crime scene and its victim could expose truths buried in shadows. In the gaslit Paris of the late nineteenth century, where science and detection are still awkward partners, Bernardet pursues a killer through a city of strangers, each with something to hide.