When fraud turns to multiple murder

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On 9 January 1993, in the Jura, Jean-Claude Romande killed his wife, his children and his parents. As far as anybody knew, he was a senior doctor at the World Health Organisation, a good father and a loving son, clever with money, well-connected. In fact, his whole life had been one long fraud. He had no medical degree and no job; he had robbed his in-laws of their money and had led a completely falsified life until it could be maintained no longer.

Emmanuel Carr?re, a French novelist and screenwriter, set out to investigate this horrific story and he tells it with great skill and coolness. In prison, Romande claims to have found God and he asks forgiveness, praying for hours every day. He has, he says, arrived at Grace: "From the depths of my cell my De Profundis become Magnificat and all is Light." Carr?re is not so sure. "When Christ enters his heart, when the certainty of being loved in spite of everything makes tears of joy run down his cheeks, isn't it the adversary deceiving him again?" Romande has lived the life that is the worst nightmare for all of us, for we have all felt ourselves at some time to be frauds. Carr?re has delineated it in a wonderfully composed and haunting style.