The Adversary: A True Story of Monstrous Deception

Emmanuel Carrere's book The Adversary describes an extraordinary deception. In 1993, Jean-Claude Romand killed his wife and two young children, then his two parents, and finally tried to kill both his mistress and himself. He was unsuccessful in the last attempt, and a subsequent investigation revealed that he was not only a murderer, but that his entire life and career (as a supposed high-ranking doctor at the World Health Organization) was a lie. Carrere’s intelligent book withholds judgment and merely presents the facts; what emerges is a persuasive account of how an initially minor deception was able to build to something monstrous over time. This is a true crime masterpiece.