title: With the Stroke of a Pen: A Story of Ambition, Greed, Infidelity, and the Murder of French Publisher Robert Denoel
author:  A. Louise Staman 
description: On the night of December 2, 1945, Robert Denoel, whose distinguished publishing house was facing charges of collaboration with the Germans, was shot to death on a Paris street. The murder was never solved by police, who initially conducted virtually no investigation. In her first book, Staman, with a master's degree in French and humanities, deftly probes the mystery of the publisher's death, her research leading her to a trove of revelatory documents sealed for decades by the French government. The events she recounts have the makings of a terrific literary detective drama, with walk-on parts by such colorful figures as Anas Nin and featured roles for avant-garde literary figures like Louis-Ferdinand Celine (Denoel's star author) and Antonin Artaud. For the most part, Staman crafts the tale skillfully, vividly portraying characters like Denol's socially ambitious mistress (also mistress to poet Paul Valery) and placing events in the larger context of Paris during the Nazi occupation and the purges of collaborators that followed the city's liberation. But there is a major flaw in Staman's narrative: she insists on inserting herself into the tale, believing her process of research and discovery to be as interesting as Denol's story. Readers will quickly tire of her imagined reconstructions of various scenes ("Of course, I attended the premiere of Les Cens," a play by Artaud) and the insipid dialogue she recreates. Which is too bad, because for those interested in Paris and its publishing scene before and during WWII, Staman's tale has many rewards. 8 pages of b&amp;w photos not seen by PW. <br />Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.
zlib_text: > Copyright & Information
  
  > Strike for Death
  
  > > First published in 1958
  
  > © John Creasey Literary Management Ltd.; House of Stratus 1958-2014
  
  > > All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored
  > in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means
  > (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise), without the
  > prior permission of the publisher. Any person who does any unauthorised act
  > in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and
  > civil claims for damages.
  
  > The right of John Creasey to be identified as the author of this work has
  > been asserted.
  
  > This edition published in 2014 by House of Stratus, an imprint of
  
  > Stratus Books Ltd., Lisandra House, Fore Street, Looe,
  
  > Cornwall, PL13 1AD, UK.
  
  > Typeset by House of Stratus.
  
  > A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library and
  > the Library of Congress.
  
  > **EAN** | **** | **ISBN** | **** | **Edition**  
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