The Cabinet of the Dead Alchemist

At the beginning of th 20th Century Paris is a party and the lights of the Belle Époque illuminate the streets of Montmartre and Pigalle, areas where moral strictures are relaxed and absinthe and opium circulate freely. But it is in a distinguished boulevard, set away from the dives and alleyways of Montmartre where Monsieur Bonancieux’s body is found with its throat slit. There are no clues, nor any apparent motive, even though the gentleman has a secret passion: he had a hidden alchemical laboratory in his home and dedicated his life to the search for the philosopher’s stone.

Amid this web of false appearances, dark formulas and unexpressed desires for other people’s things, two things are certain: the first is that even after he’s dead a man can still surprise you greatly, and two: that you never really know who your neighbours are.