Starred Review in Library Journal!

Following up on Kirkus Reviews and Town & Country, here's a nice pre-publication review of my new book in the Library Journal: 

Judgment Day: François-Marie Banier at Bordeaux courthouse

“There is no comparable work on the Bettencourt scandal, only interviews and articles, making this highly recommended and pleasurable read a mix of luring tabloid fare and professionally researched courtroom and political drama.”

*Sancton, Tom. The Bettencourt Affair: 
The World’s Richest Woman and the Scandal That Rocked Paris. Dutton. 
Aug. 2017. 416p. maps. notes. 
ISBN 9781101984475. $28; 
ebk. ISBN 9781101984482. BIOG

Expanding upon a 2010 Vanity Fair article introducing the Bettencourt scandal to an American audience, journalist and author Sancton (Song For My Fathers) accords France’s epic family drama the book-length exposé it thoroughly deserves. As “The French Company of Inoffensive Hair Dyes,” Eugène Schueller founded what would become French beauty giant L’Oreal in 1909. A century later his daughter Liliane Bettencourt was one of the world’s wealthiest. Her friendship with eccentric younger artist François-Marie Banier, whom she showered with expensive gifts, led her daughter Françoise to open a lawsuit alleging elder abuse. What started as a family affair quickly turned into an “affair of state” that reached then President Nicolas Sarkozy with allegations of campaign finance fraud regarding donations received from the Bettencourts. With impeccable research, Sancton takes readers through Bettencourt family history, from L’Oreal’s humble beginnings and continuing to document political upheaval in France during the last century. The years of legal proceedings are presented with their subsequent unexpected impact on the French presidency. 

VERDICT There is no comparable work on the Bettencourt scandal, only interviews and articles, making this highly recommended and pleasurable read a mix of luring tabloid fare and professionally researched courtroom and political drama.—Jessica Bushore, Xenia, OH