{"id":4558,"date":"2017-01-02T08:36:23","date_gmt":"2017-01-02T16:36:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/?p=4558"},"modified":"2018-02-22T11:04:45","modified_gmt":"2018-02-22T19:04:45","slug":"the-mystery-of-the-yellow-room-by-gaston-leroux","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/the-mystery-of-the-yellow-room-by-gaston-leroux","title":{"rendered":"The Mystery of the Yellow Room by Gaston Leroux"},"content":{"rendered":"

I have no ambition to be an author. An author is always something of a romancer, and God knows, the mystery of The Yellow Room is quite full enough of real tragic horror to require no aid from literary effects.<\/p>\n

Gaston Leroux, The Mystery of the Yellow Room<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

2017 is here, and I’ve kicked off a new year of reading with\u00a0The Mystery of the Yellow Room<\/em><\/a>. This early twentieth century novel is a classic locked-room mystery by\u00a0Gaston Leroux. Leroux is probably best known as the author of\u00a0The Phantom of the Opera<\/em>, but he also wrote several mysteries featuring the reporter Joseph Rouletabille, including The Perfume of the Lady in Black<\/em> and The Secret of the Night<\/em>.<\/p>\n

As you can see in this summary from the publisher<\/a>, The Mystery of the Yellow Room<\/em> has all the typical characteristics of an early twentieth-century mystery:<\/p>\n

\"TheA frightful act of malice committed in Paris: the dastardly attempted assassination of the daughter of a famed scientist who was working late in his laboratory with an assistant when the attack took place in the adjacent room. A locked chamber, windows barred, no one hiding inside. The poor young lady unconscious, covered with blood, violent marks on her throat and a wound at her temple. The scientist\u2019s revolver removed from its cabinet and sealed in the room with her. The only trace of her assailant is a large, bloody handprint on the wall.<\/p>\n

At a loss, the chief of the S\u00fbret\u00e9 telegraphs for the famous detective Fr\u00e9d\u00e9ric Larsan to be assigned to the seemingly unsolvable case. A genre-defining novel, The Mystery of the Yellow Room<\/span> follows the investigation step by step, with thorough descriptions of the crime scene to allow the reader access to the same opaque clues to the crime that the detectives have.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Like a lot of early detective fiction, this story focuses more on the puzzle than on character development or theme, but the puzzle itself was enough to keep me reading. Leroux does a fine job, too, of creating a suspenseful atmosphere, and I enjoyed the voice of the narrator, Sainclair the lawyer. One of my favorite lines of the story is when he takes a jab at his profession:<\/p>\n

I was helping to save the life of a woman, and even a lawyer may do that conscientiously.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The Mystery of the Yellow Room<\/em> was chosen as the third best locked-room mystery of all time in a poll of mystery writers and reviewers<\/a>, and for good reason. It’s well worth a read, especially for fans of early detective fiction and locked-room mysteries.<\/p>\n

The Mystery of the Locked Room<\/em>\u00a0kicks off my 2017 reading challenges in a big way, satisfying six different challenges:<\/p>\n