The Yellow Room

The Mystery of the Yellow Room (English translation of: Le myst�re de la chambre jaune) By Gaston LerouxThis is a classic locked-room mystery crime novel first published in France in 1907. At the heart of the story is reporter Joseph Rouletabille who gets mixed up in a complex crime that seems impossible. How could the criminal disappear from a locked room? It is up to Rouletabille and the reader to unravel the clues.In short, the plot revolves around Mathilde Stangerson, 35, daughter of Professor Joseph Stangerson, who is found next to a castle laboratory, where she works and resides. She had cried "Murder!" and two shots had sounded, shortly after she went to bed, locked inside a yellow room with a bolted door, a locked window, and two witnesses standing outside. By the time her father breaks down the door, she is unconscious and alone. Inside, there is a bloody handprint on the wall, a Basque cap, and a bloody handkerchief. But no attacker. Somehow, he (or she) has disappeared.The tale is incredibly complex and layered by old Victorian social conventions. John Dickson Carr, master of the locked room genre, called it the "best detective tale ever written". The Yellow Room was third on Edward Hoch's 1981 poll of 17 famous mystery writers, ranking just behind Carr's "Hollow Man" and Hake Talbot's "Rim of the Pit". The book was originally written in French and entitled: 'Le Myst�re de la Chambre Jaune'