The Mystery of the Yellow Room (Start Publishing)
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Synopsis
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?
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First Sentence
It is not without a certain emotion that I begin to recount here the extraordinary adventures of Joseph Rouletabille. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
It is not without a certain emotion that I begin to recount here the extraordinary adventures of Joseph Rouletabille. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
19 of 19 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
I'm not a mystery buff, but the premise of The Mystery of the Yellow Room is intriguing. How could someone commit a crime in a sealed room, then vanish without a trace? To find out the answer, you have to have patience; Leroux feeds you with little tid-bits - just enough to keep you reading - then at long last reveals everything. This is not a book in which the detective openly discusses his ideas and connections, but that makes the end more satisfying (by which I mean you'll be hitting yourself in the forehead, saying, "why didn't I think of that?"). It's not a light read, but follow through and it's worth it.
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful
By A. Whyte
Format:Paperback
I don't believe the other reviews here do this wonderful book justice. "The Mystery of the Yellow Room," which I have just finished reading for the second time, is one of the most enjoyable, intriguing and ingenious crime novels ever written. The first time I was probably slightly preoccupied with getting to the explanation of the locked-room mystery but the second time I was able to take it all in more and appreciate the way the final solution is set up but also impossible to guess. There's a rich array of characters and the book is cleverly put together, occasionally breaking away from its first person narrator to tell sections of the story via newspaper cuttings or transcripts. This is a popular entertainment novel (albeit one that's 100 years old), but if it is so then it is as the very highest point of the 'low' art of the who-dunnit - or more especially 'how-dunnit?' (a question so perplexing it may make you forget to ask the first, and be doubly surprised). Here is one of those rare entertainments, like certain Hitchcock's movies, that you find even more entertaining when you return it.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
By Bob
Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase
Abracadabra
`The Mystery of the Yellow Room' by Gaston Leroux is usually placed in the first rank of `closed-room' murder mysteries and well deserves that place. It is dominated by the personality of Joseph Rouletabillle, a reporter with a distinct `nose' for solving mysteries. Initially I found it unreasonable to imagine a reporter in his late teens being given such responsibility but, several chapters later, such was his self-confidence, ability to manipulate individuals, sharp observation of the environment and skilful construction of hypotheses, I was ready to believe anything of that marvellous individual. All the other characters revolve around him, notably the narrator and Frederic Larsan, the `top detective' whose seat Joseph seeks to occupy.
As a typical feature of the time (1908) the crime centres on an innocent young girl, but one who survives tight-lipped about the whole affair. Her fiancé is equally non-forthcoming and refuses to explain his disappearances when the unknown culprit appears. An over-enthusiastic detective harries the poor man into the dock, only Rouletabille doubts his guilt. The initial attack takes place in a locked room with no means of escape and two subsequent attempts by the'attacker' end in his disappearance, albeit in the last with the murder of a man suspected of the crime.
The book is full of twists and the solution doesn't rest on mere physical access but also on the personalities of the key characters and their past history. I didn't guess the identity of the culprit but I could follow the final explanation with relative ease and see how I had been hoodwinked by a master of his craft.
So I'm not going to reveal who does what - you can spoil the fun for yourself by consulting Wikipedia. I'm just urging you to savour the mystery as how a skilful conjurer can play with YOUR reasoning powers.
One minor quible: the Kindle edition sets the scene in 1802; this should be 1892.
`The Mystery of the Yellow Room' by Gaston Leroux is usually placed in the first rank of `closed-room' murder mysteries and well deserves that place. It is dominated by the personality of Joseph Rouletabillle, a reporter with a distinct `nose' for solving mysteries. Initially I found it unreasonable to imagine a reporter in his late teens being given such responsibility but, several chapters later, such was his self-confidence, ability to manipulate individuals, sharp observation of the environment and skilful construction of hypotheses, I was ready to believe anything of that marvellous individual. All the other characters revolve around him, notably the narrator and Frederic Larsan, the `top detective' whose seat Joseph seeks to occupy.
As a typical feature of the time (1908) the crime centres on an innocent young girl, but one who survives tight-lipped about the whole affair. Her fiancé is equally non-forthcoming and refuses to explain his disappearances when the unknown culprit appears. An over-enthusiastic detective harries the poor man into the dock, only Rouletabille doubts his guilt. The initial attack takes place in a locked room with no means of escape and two subsequent attempts by the'attacker' end in his disappearance, albeit in the last with the murder of a man suspected of the crime.
The book is full of twists and the solution doesn't rest on mere physical access but also on the personalities of the key characters and their past history. I didn't guess the identity of the culprit but I could follow the final explanation with relative ease and see how I had been hoodwinked by a master of his craft.
So I'm not going to reveal who does what - you can spoil the fun for yourself by consulting Wikipedia. I'm just urging you to savour the mystery as how a skilful conjurer can play with YOUR reasoning powers.
One minor quible: the Kindle edition sets the scene in 1802; this should be 1892.
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