Gaston Leroux

The Mystery of the Yellow Room: a Magic Lamp Classic Mystery Gaston Leroux

This is novel, written by the same person who created the "Phantom of the Opera" is reportedly on of the best 'locked-room' mysteries written during the 1900's, and inspired Agatha Christie to write her first book. The sleuth is a young journalist named Joseph Rouletabille, who uses reasoning and logic to solve the crime of the scientist's daughter who is the victim of an attempted murder that takes place in a room with bars on the windows, a double-locked door, making it impossible for the perpetrator to have committed the crime and escaped. In a 1935 novel, John Dickson Carr, the master of locked-room mysteries, declared the Yellow Room Mystery to be the 'best detective tale ever written.' it was voted the third best locked room mystery of all time. Another one that may come close to this book is one of the Peter Sharp Legal Mysteries, "The Magician's Legacy" by Gene Grossman - also available from Amazon.com as item number 3332825.