The Hotel on Place Vendôme: Life, Death, and Betrayal at the Hôtel Ritz in Paris

Mazzeo's (Back Lane Wineries of Sonoma) most recent biography of a luxury locale tells the story of the Paris Ritz at perhaps its most compelling historical moment—as the epicenter of Hitler's occupied Paris. Opening with a dramatic scene in the midst of the Dreyfus Affair (1894–1906), the author chronicles a destination frequented by the upper crust, or gratin, of an increasingly international Parisian society. The focus of Mazzeo's light and entertaining narrative is less on the hotel itself than on the various personages, from novelists Marcel Proust and F. Scott Fitzgerald to the Duke and Duchess of Windsor to actresses Arletty and Marlene Dietrich, who made it their home. The World War II period takes up the bulk of the work despite an intended broader approach. The intriguing anecdotes Mazzeo offers about longtime visitors and residents occasionally need further inquiry, and the snippets of deep research do not merge into a coherent, unified story.