Gaston Leroux

Extraordinary Adventures Of Joseph Rouletabille, Reporter

The Mystery Of The Yellow Room

Colleen

3 Stars

Gaston Leroux is best known for writing The Phantom of the Opera. Apparently he also wrote detective fiction, and his character of Joseph Rouletabille is to France what Sherlock Holmes is to England.

I'll get the comparisons to Sherlock Holmes out of the way first. It is inevitable that the two are compared. Since A Study in Scarlet was first published in 1887 and The Mystery of the Yellow Room was not published until 1907, it is clear who came up with the idea first. I have no idea whether or not Leroux ever read Sherlock Holmes, but since I have I could not help thinking of the latter while reading The Mystery of the Yellow Room. Both series star a person who solves crimes through deductions and far outsmarts every else around. Both series are told through the narration of a sidekick who loves to sing their praise. There are similarities in the story setup and writing as well. But I definitely like Sherlock better than Joseph Rouletabille.

The Mystery of the Yellow Room was Leroux's first book, so I was willing to give leeway for some things. But I was surprised that this is considered one of the greatest locked room mysteries ever written. It was decent but not astounding. The circumstances surrounding the events and the revelation of how the crime was committed all felt contrived. It definitely was not a mystery that readers could play along with. Meaning, revelations were based on things the reader was not shown, so it was impossible to deduct anything. And for a novella, it did drag on a bit.

The novella is written in the old style of serial publication which made it fragmented sometimes. (To be fair, it was the popular style when this book was written.) But it does contain some dense, run-on paragraphs. The popular trend was also for chapter headings to have teasers (and sometimes spoilers). Much is revealed ahead of time as if guarding the readers' delicate sensibilities from too much shock. 

The main character is Joseph Rouletabille, a young reporter who is apparently smarter than everyone else and the only one capable of figuring out crimes. He started his dazzling journalistic career at age sixteen. Since this was the early 1900's, it was not surprising for a sixteen-year-old to be working. What was surprising was that a mere two years later (when this story takes place), Rouletabille already has an established career and has made himself indispensable not only to his newspaper but also to the police and justice system. And so this Mary Sue reporter (or Gary Stu if you prefer the male moniker) is granted carte blanche access to crime scenes because he is the only one who could possibly solve any mystery. He is accompanied by his lawyer sidekick (whose name I have already forgotten) who is so awed by his younger friend's astounding intellect that he feels the world must be told of his great deeds. The character development is certainly lacking. There are many references to Rouletabille's mysterious past, but all the reader gets is a pat on the head and "maybe it will be revealed in the next book. Wink, wink." And none of the other characters matter beyond their involvement in the mystery. Another complaint was that the only female character is a helpless damsel in distress with no personality.

There is a heavy emphasis placed on the importance of truth over justice. Rouletabille blatantly states that he does not care about "justice;" he cares about the truth being known. He is a reporter after all. Since the author was also a journalist, that seemed to be a very deliberate point. Rouletabille wanted the perpetrator to be known but stated that it was not his problem whether or not that person was brought to justice. I have no idea what the laws in France in 1907 were, but you would think his lawyer friend would have made some attempt to ensure that due process was followed. Basically, this is the story of an overly-smart teenage reporter running amuck of the justice system and solving mysteries to satisfy his own curiosity.

Another note: the edition I read had a translation footnote near the beginning of the story that contained a spoiler for the main plot. It was annoying to have something given away like that.

I won't give away the big reveal. But Rouletabille does everything short of swing in on a chandelier to make it was dramatic as possible. Then the story ends with a blatant teaser for the next book. I will probably try out the next book in the series to see if it improves on the first one. But this only an average book to me.


RATING FACTORS:
Ease of Reading: 3 Stars
Writing Style: 3 Stars
Characters and Character Development: 2 Stars
Plot Structure and Development: 3 Stars
Level of Captivation: 3 Stars
Originality: 2 Stars

The Mystery Of The Yellow Room Extraordinary Adventures Of Joseph Rouletabille, Reporter

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