PAUL FRENCH was born in London, educated there and in Glasgow, and has lived and worked in Shanghai for many years. His book Midnight in Peking was a New York Times Bestseller, a BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week, and will be made into an international mini-series by Kudos Film and Television, the UK creators of Broadchurch and Life on Mars.
Summer reading pick by the Los Angeles Times, Men's Journal,
Newsweek, Bookish, Financial Times, and Bloomberg A Vulture,
BBC.com, CrimeReads, National Book Review, NY Post, and Criminal
Element Pick of the Month "Shanghai, in Mr. French, has its
champion storyteller."--The Economist "Few writers are more expert
at mingling crime narrative and social history, journalistic
precision and novelistic sweep, than Paul French. His books paint
times and places so beguiling and tell stories so vivid and
harrowing that, within pages, we're utterly in their dark thrall.
If you love Richard Lloyd Parry and David Grann, don't miss City of
Devils."
--Megan Abbott, Edgar award-winning author of You Will Know Me and
Give Me Your Hand "It's hard to go wrong with dope, decadence, and
the demimonde . . . French recounts all this with great energy and
brio."--Gary Krist, The New York Times Book Review "Historical true
crime that transports you back to the decadence and deranged beauty
of 1930s Shanghai--a place that rivaled Prohibition Chicago for
colorful miscreants and bruisers, including an ex-Navy boxer who
became the Slot King of Shanghai." --Newsweek, "Best 50 Books of
2018 (so far)" "French combines the skills of a scholar with the
soul of Dashiell Hammett."--Boris Kachka, Vulture.com, 7 Books You
Should Read This July
"Nothing lasts forever: In 1930s Shanghai, the no-holds-barred
gangster scene was run by an American ex-Navyman and a Jewish man
who'd fled Vienna. Their milieu -- and its end -- comes
alive."--Carolyn Kellogg, Los Angeles Times
"Move over Weimar: Paul French's City of Devils, a history of glam
and seedy interwar Shanghai's refugees and criminals, is nostalgic
noir at its best."--New York Magazine "An engaging and salacious
tale of the Shanghai underworld."--CrimeReads.com, "The Most
Anticipated Crime, Mystery, and Thriller Titles of 2018"
"In City of Devils, Mr. French burrows into the unsavory side of
the metropolis, focusing on the less photogenic elements of the
age: drugs, guns, gangs, gambling and graft. Derided at the time as
"Chicago on the Huangpu" for its lawless nature, the Shanghai Mr.
French depicts seems flagrantly corrupt and dangerous, but
strangely enticing... In contrast to the sort of hazy nostalgia
that elides many sordid tales of old Shanghai, "City of Devils"
casts a sharp, clear light on the shady characters who--no less
than their legitimate counterparts--played a role in creating
Shanghai's now-mythic golden age."--Maura Cunningham, Wall Street
Journal
"Drugs, gambling, vice, and banditry power China's seaport mecca in
this rollicking true crime saga.... In French's wonderfully
atmospheric portrait, Shanghai is a tapestry of grungy dive bars,
swanky nightspots, drunken soldiers, brazen showgirls, Chinese
gangsters, corrupt cops, and schemers like "Evil Evelyn," a madam
who enticed wealthy wives with gigolos and blackmailed them with
the resulting photos.... French's two-fisted prose...makes this
deep noir history unforgettable."
--Publishers Weekly *STARRED REVIEW* "Fast-paced, plot-twisty... In
addition to this suspenseful yarn, the author paints a striking
portrait of a Shanghai on the eve of Japanese occupation.... A
Casablanca without heroes and just the thing for those who like
their crime stories the darkest shade of noir."--Kirkus *STARRED
REVIEW* "City of Devils is classified as "literary non-fiction,"
which basically means that it's a well-told, well-written
historical narrative. Set in a nearly lawless Shanghai in the
1930s, the book follows two self-made men ("Lucky Jack" Riley, the
slots king of Shanghai, and "Dapper Joe" Farren, the ringleader of
a series of nightclubs) as they rise, then fall, in a true-crime
noir set in a debauched city on the eve of its own downfall."
--James Tarmy, Bloomberg "City of Devils is more than just Jack and
Joe's stories. It's the story of old Shanghai. It's the story of
racial and class divides. It's the story of a city between world
wars and the fall of the "Paris of the Orient" during the second.
And it features a cast of dozens, all brought back to life with
vivid detail and panache by Paul French . . .The amount of research
that went into City of Devils is staggering--and yet French's prose
is never dry. He has a singular knack for infusing hot, beating
blood into men and women long dead, throwing us back into the wild
and raucous parties of Shanghai's Badlands. This reads like an
adventure novel rather than the meticulous result of years of
scholastic digging. From the very introduction, you'll be hooked. I
honestly can't remember the last time a work of nonfiction was so
compelling and readable; I devoured half of the book before I came
up for air."--Criminal Element "A true tale that reads like
Humphrey Bogart or Robert Mitchum should have starred in the film
adaptation...I enjoyed City Of Devils tremendously, as a piece of
history come to vivid life, and as a meditation on hubris,
overreach and how some people's innate craving for adventure can
lead to disaster."--Los Angeles Review of Books, China Channel "For
readers who can't get enough fast-paced true crime books, City of
Devils by Paul French is unquestionably the right book to pick up
this summer."--Bookish "With the narrative rhythm of classic noir
and the polyglot slang of 1930s Shanghai, French, winner of an
Edgar and a Gold Dagger for his true-crime best-seller Midnight in
Peking (2012), tells a fast-paced, page-turning yarn about the rise
and fall of two of the city's crime kings.... This gripping history
is interspersed with gossip-rag excerpts and swirling rumors as the
tension mounts, Shanghai's complicated international politics
intensify, and the war begins."--Booklist "City of Devils is an
astonishing achievement, magically transporting the reader back to
Old Shanghai, then sweeping us through its streets and its bars in
a gripping, breakneck ultra-noir narrative reminiscent of vintage
Ellroy."--David Peace, Author of Tokyo Year Zero "A brilliant
neo-noir about the rise and fall of two refugee outlaws at the end
of Shanghai's golden age in the 1930's. Not since JG Ballard's
Empire of the Sun have I read a book that has so captured the
decadence, pulchritude and madness of the "Paris of the
Orient"...French's prose is economical, razor sharp and
lyrical...If you're interested in Shanghai, World War Two in the
east, I cannot recommend City of Devils highly enough."--Adrian
McKinty, Award-winning author of the Detective Sean Duffy Series
"To understand the "surrealist city," as present-day Shanghai is
enigmatically called, Paul French's City of Devils is an absolute
must. A solid, ground-breaking historical true-crime narrative, it
is written with such vivid, well-researched details and totally
captured me--a native Shanghainese--as if in a time capsule of the
heretofore-unknown past passions and pathos of the city."--Qiu
Xiaolong, Award-winning author of Inspector Chen series "Few epochs
stir up quite so much intrigue, mystery, and glamor as Shanghai in
the 1930s: a divided city, a bustling port, a crossroads for the
world, and a kind of frontier outpost where the citizens largely
made up their own laws....City of Devils represents the very best
of historical true crime: learned, gritty, and raucous."
--CrimeReads.com "A vivid and well-researched account of a gaudy,
wild and cosmopolitan place as it hurtles towards its ultimate and
violent demise."--Financial Times *critics pick* "A story with the
dark resonance of James Ellroy's novel "L.A. Confidential" and the
seedy glamour of Alan Furst's between-the-wars mysteries...Reader
advisory: By the time you are done with this extraordinary book,
you will believe in devils, too."--Mary Ann Gwinn, Newsday "A
fascinating, cautionary tale of hubris and greed."--The Sun
(Malaysia) "City of Devils keeps you gripped from the start to the
finish. It's written in the fast-paced style of a noir detective
novel and brings the opulence and squalor of 1930's Shanghai
vividly to life with a remarkable attention to historical detail
and brilliant portrayals not just of the two major protagonists but
the rich supporting cast of characters... I can't recommend [it]
highly enough."--Richard Brown, Medium "It's not often that I come
across a history book whose most standout feature is its
style...[A] very well written account of an oft-discussed time in a
place that almost never gets mentioned. Paul French has a real gem
in City of Devils."--The Mercury (Kansas)
"French is steeped in stories of old Shanghai, and his
understanding of the time and period allows him to build a
fully-realized world around his compelling characters. A large part
of the book's joy is in its detail: the fashion, the drinks, the
drugs, the cars, the bars, the slang."--Asian Review of Books
"Astonishing...meticulously researched...French takes you deep into
those Badlands, grips you by the throat and doesn't let
go."--BookReporter "[Paul French] is finally back...Meticulously
researched and eloquently written, [City of Devils] captures the
feel of the time period and the lawlessness that seemed to flourish
in Shanghai's International Settlement...Thrilling."--Elizabeth M.
Lynch, China Law & Policy
"This enthralling piece of non-fiction takes you into the lives of
some of the times' most notorious criminals, and gives you a
completely different perspective of the city, and perhaps another
reason to visit!"--The Beijinger "The atmospherics are
redolent."--Mark I. Pinsky, New York Journal of Books "Brings
interwar Shanghai to life in a gritty work of narrative
non-fiction...a vivid picture of the city's nightlife and criminal
underworld...it is a fascinating tale of a city on the edge."--Post
Magazine (UK) "Reads like a compelling noir novel...Spoiler: no one
here comes to a good end, but the intrigue and drama is so
outrageous that you won't miss the happy ending. City of Devils
could inspire a great modern noir film, one directed by John Woo
and starring Ryan Gosling and Christian Bale."--Military.com
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