The intrigue began with a triple homicide in a luxury apartment building just steps from the Champs-Elysees, in March 1887. A high-class prostitute and two others, one of them a child, had been stabbed to death - the latest in a string of unsolved murders targeting women of the Parisian demimonde.

Newspapers eagerly reported the lurid details, and when the police arrested Enrico Pranzini, a charismatic and handsome Egyptian migrant, the story became an international sensation. As the case descended into scandal and papers fanned the flames of anti-immigrant politics, the investigation became thoroughly enmeshed with the crisis-driven political climate of the French Third Republic and the rise of xenophobic right-wing movements.

Aaron Freundschuh's account of the "Pranzini Affair" recreates not just the intricacies of the investigation and the raucous courtroom trial, but also the jockeying for status among rival players - reporters, police detectives, doctors, and magistrates - who all stood to gain professional advantage and prestige. Pranzini's case provides a window into a transformational decade for the history of immigration, nationalism, and empire in France.

Published by Stanford University Press.

"An intriguing tale, told with insight...a good read about the great city in a time of transition." - John Merriman Yale University

"This well-reasoned analysis is eminently readable and accessible for those with absolutely no background in the period." - Publishers Weekly

"A fascinating history of late nineteenth-century Paris as it was becoming a cosmopolitan seat of a transnational empire. Its parallels with our own time are chilling." - Tyler Stovall, University of California