Monsieur Barbe-Bleue... et Madame

A narrator who has heard the tale from a Boston friend recounts a chilling modern‑day Bluebeard who hid behind the façade of a devout sect leader. Abraham Plattner, a small‑statured but solemn man with a striking beard, won the trust of countless women while quietly arranging their disappearances. The story begins with the discovery of gruesome evidence in two remote villas – burnt rooms, broken teeth and vertebrae that point to a series of violent deaths concealed under the veneer of marriage.

The investigation uncovers a tangled web of aliases, letters and personal effects belonging to the missing wives, while the authorities piece together a pattern of deceit that spans continents. Plattner’s own rationalisation that marriage itself is a fraud adds a disturbing intellectual twist to his alleged crimes. As the case heads toward a trial in Versailles, the narrative holds listeners at the edge of a dark, morally ambiguous mystery.