The Curse of the Grand Guignol

Book 6 in a series of chronological stand-alone plots:

France 1899. Dr Watson and Countess Volodymyrovna are drawn into the world of fin de siècle Paris by a series of macabre murders, propelling them into the naturalistic horror plays of the Grand Guignol.

Each horrific murder performed on stage is mysteriously and simultaneously re-enacted on the bohemian streets of Montmartre.
Inspector Didier de Guise of the Sûreté Nationale enlists the help of our two sleuths when clues from the murder scenes point to a Slavic link.
Are the bizarre murders the handiwork of anarchists creating panic prior to next year’s Paris Fair? What is the significance of all the mutilated puppets? What do the words mama, papa, baba, tato and didi signify? Could it be the demented work of a foreign lunatic with a morbid familial hatred? Could the killings be linked to the injustice of the Dreyfus affair? Or is this a monstrous publicity stunt to promote the amorality of Le Theatre du Grand Guignol?

When Art imitates Life we applaud.
When Life imitates Art we shudder.