The Mystery Of "The Yellow Room"

The font is too small for comfortable reading and the margins too wide, so that one has to strongly bend the book to barely read the inner side.

I understand that this is one of the first novels about a “locked room murder” to be written, although it is now a common theme. The book synopsis gives a very good outline of the story, so I will try not to repeat too much. The story is narrated in the first person by criminal lawyer Sainclair, who has formed an unlikely friendship with young reporter Joseph Josephine, nicknamed Rouletabille, meaning, I think “ball”, because he has a round head. We learn about the circumstances of the attempted murder of Mademoiselle Stangerson from an article in the “Matin”, a leading newspaper of the time (I wonder if the author copied this from Englishman, B. L. Farjeon, who used this device very cleverly in his 1884 novel “Great Porter Square”?)This mystery is replete with suspects, red herrings, and seemingly unsolvable enigmas – how did the would-be assassin escape from the almost hermetically-sealed yellow room? Mathilde Stangerson has worked with her father, Professor Stangerson, for most of her adult life, helping him in his field of radiography. She is now thirty-five and her engagement has recently been announced to M. Robert Darzac, a professor of physics at the prestigious Sorbonne. Rouletabille, although only eighteen years old, has been a reporter for almost two years, working for the “Époque’ newspaper and he has been given the case of “The Yellow Room”. He comes to Sainclair to ask if he will come to the Chateau du Glandier, home and laboratory of the Stangersons. Sainclair agrees and so begins the long and convoluted search for the truth. Frédéric Larsan, pre-eminent detective of the Sûreté, has also been assigned to solve this most peculiar case. The two, reporter and detective, agree on some points, but diverge sharply on others.There are more attempts on Mlle. Stangerson’s life, and a death, and the assassin always disappears into thin air, or so it seems. Rouletabille possesses a formidable intelligence and is convinced that he will discover who the assassin is, and how he always escapes. The author uses a variety of techniques in telling this story; newspaper accounts as I have already stated, (and another, later one in the ‘Époque’), examinations by the local Magistrate, M. de Marquet, accounts from the witnesses, and the narration of Saincair. There are some very helpful plans of the pavilion and the first floor of the Chateau (American second floor). There are a few beautifully descriptive passages that add to the atmosphere of the story and bring the surroundings into focus that also help.A man is arrested and the case is now world-famous. It has caught the imagination of everybody and all await the trial, eager to learn if the arrested man is, indeed, the culprit, how he escaped from the Yellow Room, and how he disappeared on other occasions. Two or three months later he is brought to trial, and at that trial, there is a most dramatic denouement that has the court in an uproar and seems almost too impossible to believe.The translator has done a marvellous job, and to me it read as if written in English. I have read many “locked room” mysteries, but this one is outstanding. Written in the style of the time (1908), it is wordier than modern novels, and has concepts of honour that some may decry, but personally, I prefer reading these old novels far more than I do modern ones.

PREMISEIf you're considering getting this book, then it's pretty obvious you're after a "locked room mystery". In that respect, you will not be disappointed. What I will say, which won't spoil it for you, is that how it happened is not supernatural. I'm not a fan of locked room mysteries where the explanation requires ghosts and goblins - that's kind of cheating!WRITING STYLEThe book was written over 100 years ago, and it has had to be translated from the original French to English. The version I got for Kindle was a fairly easy read. However, there are more than a few words that troubled me - but fortunately it's just a few clicks away on the Kindle to get the dictionary definitions (all troublesome words were on the Kindle's dictionary - phew!). The writing style is kind of a little antiquated, but it's not difficult to read. Nevertheless, the style is slightly on the bombastic side; but that's no bad thing, as a good mystery needs strong story-telling prowess anyway.TYPOS/ERRORSThe Kindle version says the story takes place in 1802, which is incorrect - it takes place in 1892. And I noticed just 1 typo when reading, but I was speed-reading the novel so it's possible I might have missed any others. Nonetheless, the 1 typo I spotted didn't detract from the overall enjoyment of the story.PACINGThe story is well-paced. The reader is drip-fed snippets of information, enough to make you want to work out or find out who did it and how it was done. The conclusion is satisfying enough, and I can see why it's on many "must read" lists of locked room mysteries.KINDLE VERSIONThe reason for losing 1 star is that the two diagrams in the original book are reproduced incorrectly in the Kindle version. They are just a jumbled mess of letters and incongruent lines. I just did a Google search and found the diagrams (two floor plans - one each for the Chateau and the pavilion). The floor plans are necessary in order to follow the narrative, as the author (in my opinion) doesn't describe the immediate areas very well.OVERALLThe novel isn't all that long. I read it in two evenings, and I'm a moderately-paced reader. If you want a good puzzle to work out, then this might not be the right book for you. The 'puzzle' only makes sense once you have all the details, some of which is withheld until almost the end of the book. Nevertheless, I still worked out how someone had managed to attack the lady in the yellow room and then just vanish; but I didn't work out who did it (which to me doesn't matter in a locked room mystery!).

If you like puzzles or logic problems you will like this book. This book has lots of twists and turns of mystery that will keep you baffled till the very end. I gave it 4 star because it is written in the 3 person, which I am not fond of.

The Mystery of the Yellow Room was a book I had heard of but never read - a short story in the 'Foreign Bodies' collection from the British Library which I read recently pastiched it to a certain extent and so I decided it was time to visit the original. The book itself is a beautiful addition to The Detective Club Series and with review quotes on the dust jacket from Hercule Poirot and Gideon Fell you know you are in for a treat.I hadn't remembered that both Poirot and Fell had referred to the book in their own cannons. I know that nods and winks to other authors were common among members of the Detection Club during the Golden Age but I had not realised that both Agatha Christie and John Dickson Carr had acknowledged Gaston Leroux so effusively.The Introduction by John Curran is interesting and sets the scene for the masterful locked room mystery which follows. A woman is brutally assaulted in her bedroom which is locked from the inside and has sealed windows. Four people are present when the door is broken down and yet no one else is there.The story is told by a trainee lawyer called M. Sainclair who plays Watson to the brilliant (and very young) journalist - Joseph Rouletabille. Having persuaded the father of the assaulted woman and the police - in the figure of top detective Frederic Larsan - to let them conduct their own investigation they proceed to do so with eventual success.To say too much more about the story would ruin it but it is a beautifully written and wholly fair mystery which any enthusiast for classic crime should enjoy. Rouletabille is, like most detective characters, quite keen on keeping his cards close to his chest until the final dénouement but his sidekick (and our narrator) is quite tolerant of it, much more so than Watson or Hastings ever was.Rouletabille refers several times during the story to 'The Perfume of the Lady in Black' - so much so that at one point M. Sainclair tells us that this has no relevance to the story which we are being told. Leroux wrote several novels featuring Rouletabille - as the second is called 'The Perfume of the Lady in Black' he was no doubt seeding the next book for his readers - a very modern habit! It would be nice if these later stories were made available in English.My only criticism is that the criminal was consistently referred to throughout the book as the murderer. As Mlle Stangerson, the lady who was attacked, survives the assault this is a somewhat inaccurate term and I found it a bit grating... That aside this is a real treat to be savoured, not for nothing was it voted the third best locked room mystery of all time. Highly recommended.