Dimensions
127 x 203 x 19mm
The Mystery of the Yellow Room is one of the classics of early 20th century detective fiction. At the heart of the novel is the enigma: how could a murder take place in a locked room, which shows no sign of being entered? REVIEWS "My favourite of all locked-room novels has at last been reissued. The Mystery of the Yellow Room was written in 1908 by Gaston Leroux, better known for The Phantom of the Opera, and has never been bettered. The first in a series of novels to feature the intrepid if naive young reporter and sleuth, Rouletabille, it pits him against the dark soul of the detective Frederick Larsan and the murky secrets of the Stangerson family. Considering when the book was written, it remains remarkably modern, a page-turner whose exploration of the dark side can still send shivers up your back. Naturally, the solution to the central crime is a twist within a tortuous twist for which even a Mensa reader will be quite unprepared. A masterpiece." Maxim Jakubowski in Time Out "Fans of Tintin will be delighted by Joseph Rouletabille, a reporter and amateur detective who first appeared in print in France in 1908. Rouletabille is a charismatic young fellow with a head that resembles a tomato both in shape and hue, plus a genius for solving crime through the application of pure logic. The puzzle he faces in this, the first of seven outings, is the epitome of the locked room mystery: a woman has been brutally attacked within a barred chamber that contains no perpetrator, only a bloody handprint and the mark of giant boots on the floor. In the most famous of locked room tales, Poe's The Murders in the Rue Morgue, the murderer was a monkey. Here the solution is even more fiendishly complicated, requiring much brow-furrowing on the part of the young Rouletabille. Gaston Leroux is better known as the author of The Phantom of the Opera, but this rattling tale stands as a testament to his years as a court reporter. The denouement is hardly likely, but Rouletabille's process of deduction is a delight, as is his bombastic dismissal of any dissenting points of view." Olivia Lang in The Guardian
