Paris is in mourning. At the fireworks display marking the Dauphin's marriage to Marie Antoinette, hundreds of people have been injured or crushed to death. Yet not all the victims died accidentally...This tragic incident yields a new case for Commissioner Le Floch when a strangled woman is found amongst the other corpses.The investigation will lead him to the home of a furrier on Rue Royale and a terrifying encounter with supernatural forces.

At the court of young King Louis XVI , conspiracies abound...Under the distrustful eye of his new boss at the Chatelet, Nicolas Le Floch investigates the bizarre death of a maid at the home of Monsieur de Saint-Florentin, the King's minister. When a second murder is washed up by the Seine with the same curious injuries, events begin to gather pace, leading Le Floch to Versailles, as he attempts to solve what is far more than a simple case of murder.

1775. On a diplomatic trip to Vienna, Commissioner Nicolas Le Floch only just survives an attempt on his life as he investigates the breakdown of French secret intelligence in the city. He returns to a France in turmoil: people are rioting in protest at the soaring price of grain and Nicolas is assigned to investigate the unexplained death of a baker. Could it be that the events in the French capital are somehow connected to his experiences in Vienna...?

October 1761 finds the newly-promoted Commisioner Le Floch on duty at a royal performance of Rameau's latest work.Events take a dramatic turn and Nicolas is soon embarked on his second major investigation when the body of a prominent courtier's son is found.The initial evidence points to suicide, but Le Floch's instincts tell him he is dealing with murder of the most gruesome kind.

Paris, 1774. Commissioner Le Floch's stormy love affair with socialite Julie de Lasterieux has run its course. But before Nicolas can formally end the relationship, Julie is found murdered in her bed, a victim of poisoning.For now, he retains the confidence of even the King, who sends him on a secret intelligence mission. But a plot is afoot to implicate Nicolas in Julie's death, and he is soon fighting to uncover the perpetrators and clear his name.

France 1761. Beyond the glittering court of Louis XV and Madame de Pompadour at Versailles, lies Paris, a capital in the grip of crime and immorality ...A police officer disappears and Nicolas Le Floch, a young recruit to the force, is instructed to find him. When unidentified human remains suddenly come to light, he seems to have a murder investigation on his hands. As the city descends into Carnival debauchery, Le Floch will need all his skill, courage and integrity to unravel a mystery which threatens to implicate the highest in the land.