The Murder Room: The Heirs of Sherlock Holmes Gather to Solve the World's Most Perplexing Cold Ca ses

Michael Capuzzo

Aug 2010 · Sold by Penguin

About this ebook

Thrilling, true tales from the Vidocq Society, a team of the world's finest forensic investigators whose monthly gourmet lunches lead to justice in ice-cold murders

Three of the greatest detectives in the world--a renowned FBI agent turned private eye, a sculptor and lothario who speaks to the dead, and an eccentric profiler known as "the living Sherlock Holmes"-were heartsick over the growing tide of unsolved murders. Good friends and sometime rivals William Fleisher, Frank Bender, and Richard Walter decided one day over lunch that something had to be done, and pledged themselves to a grand quest for justice. The three men invited the greatest collection of forensic investigators ever assembled, drawn from five continents, to the Downtown Club in Philadelphia to begin an audacious quest: to bring the coldest killers in the world to an accounting. Named for the first modern detective, the Parisian eugène François Vidocq-the flamboyant Napoleonic real-life sleuth who inspired Sherlock Holmes-the Vidocq Society meets monthly in its secretive chambers to solve a cold murder over a gourmet lunch.

The Murder Room draws the reader into a chilling, darkly humorous, awe-inspiring world as the three partners travel far from their Victorian dining room to hunt the ruthless killers of a millionaire's son, a serial killer who carves off faces, and a child killer enjoying fifty years of freedom and dark fantasy.

Acclaimed bestselling author Michael Capuzzo's brilliant storytelling brings true crime to life more realistically and vividly than it has ever been portrayed before. It is a world of dazzlingly bright forensic science; true evil as old as the Bible and dark as the pages of Dostoevsky; and a group of flawed, passionate men and women, inspired by their own wounded hearts to make a stand for truth, goodness, and justice in a world gone mad.

Ratings and reviews

This is a fascinating look into the secretive world of the Vidocq Society. It is by far the best book I have come across in years with regards to criminal profiling. I thought the writing was excellent and I am reading it for a second time. I was disappointed though that nothing was revealed concerning the Vidocq's view into the Jonbenet Ramsey ransom note. Although you can find Robert Ressler's profile of this case all over the internet, It would have been a more interesting read to learn the other members view on this case. STILL A GREAT BOOK !!

I read the excerpts from the book. They make me suspicious; I've read the transcripts of the Brannon murder investigation and Bob Meyer, father of the murdered Sherry-Ann, does not have a wife Sherry, but had a wife Darlene, Dolly, and he was not a doctor but a reserve deputy at the time of the murders.

An outstanding book about expert sleuths solving actual cold cases. A must read!

About the author

Born in Boston and educated at Northwestern University, Michael Capuzzo is the author of the acclaimed New York Times Bestseller Close to Shore, a historical thriller of the true story that inspired the novel and movie Jaws. Winner of many writing prizes as a staff reporter for The Philadelphia Inquirer and The Miami Herald, and for stories in magazines including Sports Illustrated, Esquire and Life, he lives in Pennsylvania, where he and his wife publish a prize-winning storytelling magazine, Mountain Home.