FROM THE PUBLISHER

Alone in Paris while her husband, Fred, is shooting a film in Provence, Maggy Renard has accepted a job as emcee at the Pussycat Club.

At first, the steamy, funky atmosphere amuses her. It is a change from the more dignified world of legitimate theatre to which she is accustomed. Then she finds the mutilated corpse of one of the strippers, and the fun is gone.

From the pompous arrogance of Chief Inspector Charvier to the brutal indifference of Mario, the club's manager, reaction to the ugly crimes seems to Maggy so lukewarm as to be utterly inhuman.

Is it because of the victim's profession? Not only the tabloid press but the mainstream news media seem ready, as always, to blame the victim, and as more girls are killed, the public gets ever greedier for their nightly dose of blood.

Maggy and her friend Sheila, a "working girl" in Pigalle, swear to do whatever it takes to bring the killer to justice. But there are hidden monetary and political aspects to the case. And most monstrous of all, in Maggy's eyes; the evil that justifies torture by dehumanizing the victims. "She was only a whore, after all." Will Maggy's pursuit of the killer put her at risk of departing on a last, fatal journey of her own?

SYNOPSIS

Paris is known as the 'City of Lights,' but like any great metropolis, it has dark pockets of evil waiting, like carnivorous plants, to devour the unwary. The girls of the Pussycat Club are turning up dead. Will Maggy Renard be departing on a fatal journey of her own?

FROM THE CRITICS

James Cox