In 2014, Éric Mailly, a young police officer with a passion for tattoos, discovered that two books had been withdrawn from the auction of a private collection. One of them caught his eye: a folder that once belonged to the famous French forensic pathologist and criminologist Jean Lacassagne, in connection with a terrible crime that took place in Lyon in 1930. It’s the book’s binding that prevents it from being sold: it’s made of the tattooed skin of a man, Louis Rambert, one of the two guilty parties in the case. As he continues his research, Éric discovers the name of his accomplice, a certain Gustave Mailly… Are they related? The lives of Louis Rambert and Gustave Mailly are still a mystery: the press has reported on their trial and their fate, but only in part… What shaped their lives?
How did they become criminals? Why and how did they end up committing the crime?
