A Tale of Two Murders

“A Tale of Two Murders is … riveting and readable, equally appropriate for an audience of university students or general readers.” - Brian Sandberg, Renaissance Quarterly

“A Tale of Two Murders is a well-structured and complex story of the disappearance of two men in 1638. It is told in engaging, flawless prose, but most importantly it contains a stunning arrangement of every necessary ingredient to a delicious murder mystery.” - Laura James, Clews: The Historic True Crime Blog

“[A] captivating work of excellent scholarship. [Farr] admirably succeeded in bringing these extraordinary murder stories to life and persuasively brought forward their theses. If only all history books were this much fun to read.”
- Marie Seong-Hak Kim H-Law, H-Net Reviews

“Combining a gripping narrative with keen analysis, Farr uses this case to shed light on patronage and the pursuit of power among the seventeenth-century French nobility.” - Jeffrey R. Watt,, Sixteenth Century Journal

“Farr has crafted an excellent study of early modern political and social history.” - Michael R. Lynn, Canadian Journal of History

“I enjoyed this book immensely. Beautifully written and carefully structured, it uses the narration of a murder mystery to demonstrate how the early modern French legal system worked, in particular how the informal system of patronage and influence was used to manipulate the legal system. Based almost entirely on archival sources, the book is meticulously researched and exhibits exemplary scholarship. . . . It is a tour de force, combing popular and scholarly history, and highly recommended to everyone.” - Sharon Kettering, Law and History Review

“In my experience, Farr’s book is a fine teaching tool. Wrapped in taut suspense, readers are gripped by indecision; guilty, not guilty; could be, maybe not. Adopting a smart strategy, he does not take a stand for or against the Giroux verdict (1643), so students may be asked to summarize evidence on both sides—reason about it—and offer verdicts of their own. A compelling historical narrative based on careful scholarship, this book is a valuable addition to studies of early modern France.” - Sarah Hanley, American Historical Review

“Students and scholars alike will appreciate this engaging, illuminating study of the convoluted workings and cutthroat realities of early modern law and politics.” - Michael P. Breen, Journal of Modern History

“The best micro-histories manage to convey the texture of a vanished culture and to define and amplify the basic issues, concerns, and imperatives that infused the society in which the highlighted events unfolded. Farr’s engrossing study, A Tale of Two Murders, delivers those insights in spades.” - Jay M. Smith, Journal of Interdisciplinary History

"This meticulous account of crime, courtroom drama, and punishment in seventeenth-century Dijon, France is a case study in the best sense of the term--and what a case! . . . [S]o colorful a tale is a novelist's dream that cries out for embellishment, yet the unvarnished record is compelling enough for a scholarly treatment that repays in intellectual substance what it sacrifices in swashbuckling but imagined flourishes." - Peyton Moss, Foreword Reviews

“Dazzling beauty, spousal abuse, passionate love, wanton covetousness, lust, conspiracy, poison, murder, vengeance: what an engaging surprise to discover that one of America’s foremost scholars of early modern European society, James R. Farr, is also a beguiling storyteller. A riveting drama, his book is at the same time a masterful analysis of emotion and affect, rites and rituals, elite formation and reproduction, family and lineage strategies, gender construction, the discourse and practice of the law, political culture, relations of domination and subordination, the tensions between center and periphery, and the myriad ways in which power worked in seventeenth-century France.” - Steven Laurence Kaplan, author of The Bakers of Paris and the Bread Question, 1700–1775

“James R. Farr has produced a terrific work of historical research, a book that offers both compelling narrative and suggestive analyses. A Tale of Two Murders addresses basic questions about how early modern society functioned, and it should interest specialists and non-specialists alike.” - Jonathan Dewald, author of Aristocratic Experience and the Origins of Modern Culture: France, 1570–1715