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cardica's review against another edition
3.0
Coming in at 11th place on our 2019 rankings, a time capsule from the 19th century, is [a:Émile Gaboriau|3321022|Émile Gaboriau|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1521620377p2/3321022.jpg]'s [b:The Lerouge Case|3320955|The Lerouge Case|Émile Gaboriau|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1348637435l/3320955._SX50_.jpg|3062185] or ‘L’Affaire Lerouge’. Centred around a quintessential, sudden murder in the countryside, beginning with the stamping of police boots on the floorboards and the calling of the allegedly reputable detective, Tabaret, to solve a crime and generally meddle in the political dealings of the French aristocracy, including someone who is probably a vampire.
Our tale begins with the death of The Widow Lerouge, found slain, alone in her home. Given the dubious history of her arrival in town, the threat of the unknown riles up the whole village as the Gendarmes swoop in to stomp their muddy boots all over the case. Recommended by the young upstart officer, Lecoq, our detective Tabaret resolves to not just determine “how was the crime committed” but indeed to determine the poor woman’s history, in the hopes this will unveil both the culprit and motive. Much of the story is devoted to the discussion of her history, an appropriate parallel to the age of this novel.
We predominantly follow Tabaret as he interrogates witnesses and gathers clues like magic, summoning evidence from seemingly nothing, which the police begrudgingly accept without question, apparently quickly acclimated to the ways of Tabaret. The methods scream of Sherlock Holmes, who Sir Arthur Conan Doyle based on the writings of Gaboriau.
Predicating that Doylian style, wherein the detective has a love hate relationship with the official investigation, we often follow Tabaret chasing leads and racing the police to key witnesses and evidence in his battle both against and towards justice. In and of himself Tabaret isn’t too remarkable, as the spotlight focuses on the supporting cast so that the reader can immerse themselves into the tumultuous atmosphere of post-revolution France.
The novel also introduces us to Gaboriau’s most famous detective, one Monsieur Lecoq, who is the French inspiration for Sherlock Holmes himself, and who is, in Holmes own words “a bumbling fool”. Despite only being in the text for the sum of two or three chapters, as the aforementioned young upstart of the Gendarmes, it is fascinating to see the origins of such fantastic characters and to trace the roots of the mighty Holmes all the way to 19th century France in our murder mystery world tour.
The Lerouge Case follows few rules of its own, being untouched by either the ten or twenty rules of detective fiction. Written in the mid-19th century only 20 years after Edgar Allen Poe’s pioneering “Murder of the Rue Morgue” The Lerouge Case is a defining stone on the founding of the murder mystery genre. With character perspective playing musical chairs and narration switching from first to third perspective at the drop of the hat, this is not what I would call a neat and tidy affair, but it is certainly an entertaining one, in no small part thanks to its release structure.
As with most novels of its era, L’Affaire Lerouge was created in serial, a new installment being released in each new edition of the paper. To keep enticing his readers back, Gaboriau ends each chapter on some cliffhanger or reveal, keeping the sales coming and ensuring no chapter feels filler. This lends itself well to a reader looking for a novel that reads like a play. You can imagine the actors changing their costumes and the set between chapters as we move through France from place to place.
The aspect I most appreciated is the subplots focusing on the romance that some characters share. As a story focused on the aristocracy of a country mere years removed from decapitating its wealthy in the French Revolution, those elements are prominent and the aura of nobility and family are central to the tale. I appreciate a story that delivers a good puzzle but the best detective fiction stories incorporate strong characters and their relationships with each other in order to explain the mystery and to lead to an exciting conclusion. The story tugged at my heartstrings more than once during the reading, I would highly recommend this to anyone who wishes for an underlying tone of romantic drama in their rules-laden hyper-focused genre of storytelling that Detective fiction so often falls into.
As much fun as we had reading this story, we can’t rank it higher for this year since there are so many novels published after it that have improved on what The Lerouge Case does. With its messy storytelling, entertaining but not engaging detective, and being overshadowed by the much more famous Monsieur Lecoq in Gaboriau’s later works, this novel may be a founding stone of Murder Mystery fiction, but it’s a founding stone deservedly hidden away behind its finer-carved brethren.
For the Lerouge Case it may be low in our ranking but it is high in our hearts and for that I give it 4 hearts pierced with a blade out of five. You can catch our full thoughts on Death of the Reader!
Our tale begins with the death of The Widow Lerouge, found slain, alone in her home. Given the dubious history of her arrival in town, the threat of the unknown riles up the whole village as the Gendarmes swoop in to stomp their muddy boots all over the case. Recommended by the young upstart officer, Lecoq, our detective Tabaret resolves to not just determine “how was the crime committed” but indeed to determine the poor woman’s history, in the hopes this will unveil both the culprit and motive. Much of the story is devoted to the discussion of her history, an appropriate parallel to the age of this novel.
We predominantly follow Tabaret as he interrogates witnesses and gathers clues like magic, summoning evidence from seemingly nothing, which the police begrudgingly accept without question, apparently quickly acclimated to the ways of Tabaret. The methods scream of Sherlock Holmes, who Sir Arthur Conan Doyle based on the writings of Gaboriau.
Predicating that Doylian style, wherein the detective has a love hate relationship with the official investigation, we often follow Tabaret chasing leads and racing the police to key witnesses and evidence in his battle both against and towards justice. In and of himself Tabaret isn’t too remarkable, as the spotlight focuses on the supporting cast so that the reader can immerse themselves into the tumultuous atmosphere of post-revolution France.
The novel also introduces us to Gaboriau’s most famous detective, one Monsieur Lecoq, who is the French inspiration for Sherlock Holmes himself, and who is, in Holmes own words “a bumbling fool”. Despite only being in the text for the sum of two or three chapters, as the aforementioned young upstart of the Gendarmes, it is fascinating to see the origins of such fantastic characters and to trace the roots of the mighty Holmes all the way to 19th century France in our murder mystery world tour.
The Lerouge Case follows few rules of its own, being untouched by either the ten or twenty rules of detective fiction. Written in the mid-19th century only 20 years after Edgar Allen Poe’s pioneering “Murder of the Rue Morgue” The Lerouge Case is a defining stone on the founding of the murder mystery genre. With character perspective playing musical chairs and narration switching from first to third perspective at the drop of the hat, this is not what I would call a neat and tidy affair, but it is certainly an entertaining one, in no small part thanks to its release structure.
As with most novels of its era, L’Affaire Lerouge was created in serial, a new installment being released in each new edition of the paper. To keep enticing his readers back, Gaboriau ends each chapter on some cliffhanger or reveal, keeping the sales coming and ensuring no chapter feels filler. This lends itself well to a reader looking for a novel that reads like a play. You can imagine the actors changing their costumes and the set between chapters as we move through France from place to place.
The aspect I most appreciated is the subplots focusing on the romance that some characters share. As a story focused on the aristocracy of a country mere years removed from decapitating its wealthy in the French Revolution, those elements are prominent and the aura of nobility and family are central to the tale. I appreciate a story that delivers a good puzzle but the best detective fiction stories incorporate strong characters and their relationships with each other in order to explain the mystery and to lead to an exciting conclusion. The story tugged at my heartstrings more than once during the reading, I would highly recommend this to anyone who wishes for an underlying tone of romantic drama in their rules-laden hyper-focused genre of storytelling that Detective fiction so often falls into.
As much fun as we had reading this story, we can’t rank it higher for this year since there are so many novels published after it that have improved on what The Lerouge Case does. With its messy storytelling, entertaining but not engaging detective, and being overshadowed by the much more famous Monsieur Lecoq in Gaboriau’s later works, this novel may be a founding stone of Murder Mystery fiction, but it’s a founding stone deservedly hidden away behind its finer-carved brethren.
For the Lerouge Case it may be low in our ranking but it is high in our hearts and for that I give it 4 hearts pierced with a blade out of five. You can catch our full thoughts on Death of the Reader!
anils's review
5.0
This is my first original French novel, and I've read it at about a B2 level. I liked the story, and the prose was relatively easy to follow. Gaboriau is not too heavy on descriptions, and I definitely think I improved a lot from this book. I will certainly be reading the ones that come after.
iphigenie72's review
4.0
J'ai vraiment aimé ce livre, la prose est un plaisir à lire. Côté mystère : je me doutais bien de qui était le coupable à la moitié du livre et même du revirement que j'imagine se voulait spectaculaire au moment de l'écriture. Ceci dit, j'ai douté de mes conclusions jusqu'au moment où le tout est révélé dans le texte et c'est pour cela que j'ai vraiment aimé. Faire douter son lecteur quand réellement il n'y a pas d'autres alternatives plausibles, il faut être un grand écrivain. Tous les personnages étaient intéressants et provoquaient des réactions qu'elles soient bonnes ou mauvaises. Je recommande fortement la lecture de 'L'affaire Lerouge'.
sophie_huy's review against another edition
I mean, tall women *are* unnatural, and ugly old women only have lovers *because* they're rich and... yeah, the misogyny might be a product of its time, but I don't see why I should subject myself to its reading.
The writing style is old and I highly doubt the plot is going to blow my mind.
DNF
The writing style is old and I highly doubt the plot is going to blow my mind.
DNF
punta's review against another edition
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
unevendays's review against another edition
4.0
The wonderful Project Gutenberg provided me with this to read, and as a fan of the detective fiction genre, particularly Sherlock Holmes, Gaston Leroux and Edgar Allen Poe, I thought I really should add this to my reading list. I enjoyed it very much - I liked the lead character and the very human way he was portrayed: a complete contrast to Sherlock Holmes. I will definitely be reading some more of his work.
bzedan's review against another edition
4.0
This is one convoluted story. Which—totally what Gaboriau rocks at. Just when you think "okay, so this person is secretly this person, and they love this person" you are proved wrong. M. Lecoq makes only a cameo in this story, he's only just begun being a detective. And the tangled skein of identity that Gaboriau rocks has also only just begun. Despite relative infancy, however, both are highly enjoyable.
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