The Mystery of the Yellow Room
'The Mystery of the Yellow Room' Summary
Reporter and amateur sleuth Joseph Rouletabille is sent to investigate a criminal case at the Château du Glandier and takes along his friend the lawyer Sainclair, who narrates. Mathilde Stangerson, the 30-something daughter of the castle's owner, Professor Joseph Stangerson, was found near-critically battered in a room adjacent to his laboratory on the castle grounds, with the door still locked from the inside. She recovers slowly but can make no useful testimony. Rouletabille meets and interrogates several characters: the castle's concierges Mr & Mrs Bernier, the old servant Jacques, an unfriendly inn landlord and a womanising gamekeeper, and begins a friendly rivalry with France's top police detective Frédéric Larsan, who has been assigned the case. Larsan suspects Ms Stangerson's fiancé, another scientist called Robert Darzac, to Rouletabille's dismay.
More attempts are made on Ms Stangerson's life despite Rouletabille and Larsan's protection, and the perpetrator appears to vanish on two occasions when they are closing in on him, echoing Professor Stangerson's research into "matter dissociation". The game-keeper is murdered during the second attempt. Ultimately, Larsan arrests Darzac who is charged with murder attempts. Rouletabille suspects that Darzac has secret reasons not to defend himself and he disappears to make further investigations.
Two-and-a-half months later, as Darzac's trial opens, Rouletabille reappears sensationally and tells the court that the culprit is Frédéric Larsan himself, whom he accuses of being an alter-ego of a master criminal called Ballmeyer. Larsan appeared to vanish on the two occasions he was nearly collared as he was one of the pursuers. Darzac is released when it emerges that Larsan has vanished after Rouletabille warned him he would accuse him in court. The mystery of the locked Yellow Room is explained thus: Larsan assaulted Ms Stangerson earlier in the day than originally thought, but she hid the traces of the attack and locked herself away. During the night, traumatised by the event, she fell off her bed and inflicted the gravest of the wounds by hitting her temple on the corner of her bed-side table.
The background to these events is kept secret in court but finally explained by Sainclair. Ballmeyer, in a different guise, had seduced Ms Stangerson in her youth and married her secretly in the United States. They had a child before he was arrested and his identity revealed to her. Ms Stangerson had arranged for her son's care and education and hidden the whole saga from her father; her silence and Robert Darzac's behaviour were motivated by her desperation to keep him from finding out. Ballmeyer however, hearing that she was engaged, had decided to reappear in her life and claim her as his wife once more, by force if necessary.
Book Details
Author
Gaston Leroux
France
Gaston Louis Alfred Leroux was a French journalist and author of detective fiction. In the English-speaking world, he is best known for writing the novel The Phantom of the Opera (Le Fantôme de...
More on Gaston LerouxDownload eBooks
Listen/Download Audiobook
- Select Speed
Related books
The Mystery Girl by Carolyn Wells
In the quaint college town of Corinth, a mysterious young woman arrives, her beauty and enigmatic aura captivating the hearts of the townsfolk. But am...
The Voyagers: Being Legends and Romances of Atlantic Discovery by Padraic Colum
Embark on a thrilling journey through time and legend with "The Voyagers: Being Legends and Romances of Atlantic Discovery" by Pádraic Colum. This mes...
Captain Sparkle, Pirate by Nicholas Carter
This book follows the courageous Captain Sparkle and his crew as they embark on daring quests, encounter formidable foes, and search for hidden treasu...
Double Crossed by Wilfrid Douglas Newton
It follows a young woman named Beatrice Wray who becomes embroiled in a dangerous game of espionage and deceit. When her fiancé, who is a British secr...
Phoebe Daring by L. Frank Baum
When a mysterious stranger is accused of a crime he didn't commit, it's up to Phoebe Daring, the bravest girl in town, to clear his name. Phoebe Dari...
The Boy Scouts at the Battle of Saratoga by St. George Henry Rathborne
Three young men, Dan, Joe and Late, are on an errand for General Schuyler. They are to meet up with a mysterious stranger, who gives them reports of e...
The Broad Highway by John Jeffery Farnol
In the enchanting world of early 20th-century England, amidst the fading echoes of horse-drawn carriages and gas-lit streets, John Jeffery Farnol weav...
Stories of the Royal Humane Society by Frank Mundell
In "Stories of the Royal Humane Society" by Frank Mundell, prepare to embark on a remarkable journey into the extraordinary realm of heroism and compa...
The Middle of Things by J. S. Fletcher
Crome Yellow is the first novel by British author Aldous Huxley, published by Chatto & Windus in 1921, followed by a U.S. edition by George H. Doran C...
The Markenmore Mystery by J. S. Fletcher
After seven years of silence, Guy Markenmore returns to his family home at Markenmore Court. Knowing his father Sir Anthony to be close to death, he i...
Reviews for The Mystery of the Yellow Room
No reviews posted or approved, yet...