About this item
The suspenseful sequel to the genre-defining The Mystery of the Yellow Room Set in a medieval castle on the Cte d'Azur, this classic locked room mystery reunites journalist-turned-detective Joseph Rouletabille; Mathilde Stangerson, daughter of a famed French-American scientist; and master of disguise Frdric Larsan. Stangerson and her sweetheart Robert Darzac have just married and taken up residence in the Square Tower of the Fort of Hercules when Larsan strikes again. The attack leaves Stangerson frightened and confused, not only because she thought her nemesis dead, but also because she cannot figure out how he entered and escaped her room without notice. Only one man is capable of matching wits with Larsan, but when Rouletabille arrives in the South of France to investigate, he finds himself drawn deeper into his own past and his memories of a mysterious woman in black.
About the Author
was a French journalist and author of detective fiction. In the English-speaking world, he is best known for writing the novel 1910) , which has been made into several film and stage productions of the same name, such as the 1925 film starring Lon Chaney, and Andrew Lloyd Webber's 1986 musical. It was also the basis of the 1990 novel by Susan Kay. Leroux went to school in Normandy and studied law in Paris, graduating in 1889. He inherited millions of francs and lived wildly until he nearly reached bankruptcy. Then in 1890, he began working as a court reporter and theater critic for His most important journalism came when he began working as an international correspondent for the Paris newspaper In 1905 he was present at and covered the Russian Revolution. Another case he was present at involved the investigation and deep coverage of an opera house in Paris, later to become a ballet house. The basement consisted of a cell that held prisoners in the Paris Commune, which were the rulers of Paris through much of the Franco-Prussian war. He suddenly left journalism in 1907, and began writing fiction. In 1909, he and Arthur Bernède formed their own film company, Société des Cinéromans to simultaneously publish novels and turn them into films. He first wrote a mystery novel entitled Le mystère de la chambre jaune (1908; The Mystery of the Yellow Room) , starring the amateur detective Joseph Rouletabille. Leroux's contribution to French detective fiction is considered a parallel to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's in the United Kingdom and Edgar Allan Poe's in America. Leroux died in Nice on April 15, 1927, of a urinary tract infection.
