CRIMINAL PARIS

By Netley Lucas

In 1926, Netley Lucas, a young English con man turned crime writer, promised to lead his readers into the hidden underworld of Paris. In the company of the international crook Etienne Gaspard, he descends from the cafés of the boulevards into the cellars of Montmartre and the shadows of the Seine. There he meets apache gangs and their fearless women, forgers and jewel thieves, drug dealers, blackmailers, and spies. He also tells the stories of the Bonnot motor bandits and of the murderer Henri Désiré Landru, the “Bluebeard” of Gambais.

Vivid, entertaining, and often unreliable, Criminal Paris is a revealing portrait of crime and its fascination in the 1920s. Its author was himself a gifted deceiver. Within a few years Lucas was exposed as a fabricator and jailed for selling a bogus royal biography. The book carries a foreword by Dr. Edmond Locard, one of the founders of modern forensic science.

This Read-Me.Org Modernized-Classic edition updates the language for today’s readers and retains the original frontispiece portrait of the author. A new introduction by Colin Heston places Lucas and his book in historical context. Review and discussion questions make it suitable for courses in criminology, criminal justice, and social history.

Read-Me.Org Inc. New York-Philadelphia-Australia. 2026. 157 p.