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

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 Jaws. Winner of many writing prizes as a syndicated columnist and 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.

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.

Publishers Weekly

Despite journalist Capuzzo's obvious reverence for the crime fighters he profiles, his account of the formation of the legendary Vidocq Society is as scattered as many of the cold case files they wade through. Based in Philadelphia, the Vidocq Society was the brainchild of three wildly different men brought together by their desire to speak for the dead: freewheeling exboxer turned forensic sculptor Frank Bender; FBI and U.S. Customs agent William Fleisher; and pre-eminent forensic psychologist and profiler Richard Walter. What began as an informal meeting of colleagues in 1990 evolved into an expansive international think tank of sorts modeled and named after France's famed criminal-turned-sleuth Euge`ne Vidocq, a model for Sherlock Holmes. The cases--ranging from Philadelphia's long-festering "Boy in the Box" murder to the "Butcher of Cleveland," a serial killer who taunted Elliot Ness in the 1930s--are fascinating, but Capuzzo (Close to Shore) loses much of his narrative momentum by abruptly shifting between the founding members' individual backstories and homicides the society investigates. Yet there is no denying that the 82 "VSMs"(Vidocq Society Member) do an immeasurable service in the name of justice. (Aug. 10)

Prologue

The Profiler and the Priest

The Voice of the Blood

PART ONE THE MURDER ROOM

Chapter 1 The Connoisseurs of Murder 1

Chapter 2 The Man Who Got Away with Murder 10

Chapter 3 The Knights of the Cafe Table 17

PART TWO FOUR BOYS

Chapter 4 A Little Child Shall Lead Them 23

Chapter 5 Cops and Robbers 30

Chapter 6 The Man Who Saw Dead People 42

Chapter 7 Shades of the Dark Knight 51

Chapter 8 Guardians of the City 57

Chapter 9 Cold Eyes from the Past 63

Chapter 10 On the Trail of the Assassin 66

Chapter 11 Death of a B-Girl 70

Chapter 12 The Visual Detective 83

Chapter 13 The Man with the Bad Stomach 92

Chapter 14 On the Trail of the Warlock 100

Chapter 15 The Reluctant Knight-Errant 109

Chapter 16 The Perfect Mass Murder 113

Chapter 17 The Mask of the Invisible Man 122

Chapter 18 The Return of Vidocq 130

PART THREE THE VIDOCQ SOCIETY

Chapter 19 The Gathering of Detectives 139

Chapter 20 Busted 146

Chapter 21 The Detective of Souls 156

Chapter 22 The Death Artist 160

Chapter 23 Dreams of Morpheus 164

Chapter 24 A Case They Can't Let Go 166

Chapter 25 The Butcher of Cleveland 178

Chapter 26 Imploring God 188

Chapter 27 The End of the Affair 192

Chapter 28 Catch Me If You Can 198

Chapter 29 The Case of the Shoeless Corpse 206

Chapter 30 The Case of the Prodigal Son 216

Chapter 31 The Sage of Scotland Yard 220

Chapter 32 Think Therefore on Revenge 227

Chapter 33 Murder in the Cathedral 236

Chapter 34 What I Want to Hear Are Handcuffs 242

Chapter 35 The Consulting Detectives 253

PART FOUR BATTLING MONSTERS

Chapter 36 Take Me to the Psychopath 261

Chapter 37 The Stranger in Biddle House 268

Chapter 38 City of Brotherly Mayhem 279

Chapter 39 Wrath Sweeter by Far than the Honeycomb 283

Chapter 40 The Worst Mother in History 294

Chapter 41 The Boy Who Never Died 298

Chapter 42 The Eight Babies Called "It" 304

Chapter 43 Murder in Triplicate 310

Chapter 44 From Heaven to Hell 316

Chapter 45 The Descent 322

Chapter 46 In the World Which Will Be Renewed 328

Chapter 47 "Congratulations, You've Found Your Killer" 332

Chapter 48 Interrogation 337

Chapter 49 The Haunting of Mary 348

Chapter 50 The Case of the Missing Face 350

Chapter 51 The Killer Angels 360

Chapter 52 The Ghost 373

Chapter 53 The Ninth Circle of Hell 380

Chapter 54 Death in the Time of Bananas 395

Chapter 55 The Miracle on South Street 399

Chapter 56 Knights of the Round Tables 405