Book Description

The Mystery of Orcival is a novel by Émile Gaboriau, published in 1867, and part of the Monsieur Lecoq series. Similar to Sherlock Holmes, Lecoq is a genius detective; arrogant, proud, a master of disguise, and known for deducing things that others cannot see. The character was apparently based on Eugène François Vidocq, a police officer who used to be a thief.A murder is discovered. The authorities quickly arrest an obvious suspect. A detective spends hours at the scene in disguise before making himself known, and proceeds to minutely examine the evidence with the assistance of a doctor, among others, before proclaiming the answer lies in a completely different direction. One would be forgiven for thinking the detective must be a certain famous Englishman and his doctor companion.But this detective is French rather than English, a professional working for the police rather than an amateur, and indulges in candy lozenges rather than cocaine. If there is a straight line between Poe's Dupin and Doyle's Holmes, then Gaboriau's Lecoq lies right in the middle of it. He is a master of disguise, he is proud and sometimes arrogant, he notices infinitesimal things others do not, he makes great leaps in deduction while others are struggling to take small steps. He is both strikingly similar and distinctly different than his more famous English "cousin."Although Monsieur Lecoq appeared in Gaboriau's first novel, there he played only a minor part. Here, he is the main attraction. Solving the murder of a countess and disappearance of a count requires all of Lecoq's skills, and as he steadily unravels the mystery one sees the debt that is owed by all who came after him.This new annotated edition includes several never-before-seen features, like:*The original editor's preface that accompanied the original printing.*Easily navigable Table of Contents