‘THE DETECTIVE STORY CLUB is a clearing house for the best detective and mystery stories chosen for you by a select committee of experts. Only the most ingenious crime stories will be published under the THE DETECTIVE STORY CLUB imprint. A special distinguishing stamp appears on the wrapper and title page of every THE DETECTIVE STORY CLUB book—the Man with the Gun. Always look for the Man with the Gun when buying a Crime book.’
Wm. Collins Sons & Co. Ltd., 1929
Now the Man with the Gun is back in this series of COLLINS CRIME CLUB reprints, and with him the chance to experience the classic books that influenced the Golden Age of crime fiction.
COLLINS CRIME CLUB
An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd
1 London Bridge Street
London SE1 9GF
First published in Great Britain by Edward Arnold 1909
Originally published in French as Le Mystère de la Chambre Jaune 1907
Introduction © John Curran 2018
Cover layout design © HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 2018
A catalogue copy of this book is available from the British Library.
This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.
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Source ISBN: 9780008167035
Ebook Edition © August 2018 ISBN: 9780008167042
Version: 2018-03-14
Contents
I. IN WHICH WE BEGIN NOT TO UNDERSTAND
II. IN WHICH JOSEPH ROULETABILLE APPEARS FOR THE FIRST TIME
III. ‘A MAN HAS PASSED LIKE A SHADOW THROUGH THE BLINDS’
IV. ‘IN THE BOSOM OF WILD NATURE’
VI. IN THE HEART OF THE OAK GROVE
VII. IN WHICH ROULETABILLE SETS OUT ON AN EXPEDITION UNDER THE BED
VIII. THE EXAMINING MAGISTRATE QUESTIONS MADEMOISELLE STANGERSON
X. ‘WE SHALL HAVE TO EAT RED MEAT—NOW’
XI. IN WHICH FRÉDÉRIC LARSAN EXPLAINS HOW THE MURDERER WAS ABLE TO GET OUT OF THE YELLOW ROOM
XIII. ‘THE PRESBYTERY HAS LOST NOTHING OF ITS CHARM, NOR THE GARDEN ITS BRIGHTNESS’
XIV. ‘I EXPECT THE ASSASSIN THIS EVENING’
XVI. STRANGE PHENOMENON OF THE DISSOCIATION OF MATTER
XVII. THE INEXPLICABLE GALLERY
XVIII. ROULETABILLE HAS DRAWN A CIRCLE BETWEEN THE TWO BUMPS ON HIS FOREHEAD
XIX. ROULETABILLE INVITES ME TO BREAKFAST AT THE DONJON INN
XX. AN ACT OF MADEMOISELLE STANGERSON
XXIV. ROULETABILLE KNOWS THE TWO HALVES OF THE MURDERER
XXV. ROULETABILLE GOES ON A JOURNEY
XXVI. IN WHICH JOSEPH ROULETABILLE IS AWAITED WITH IMPATIENCE
XXVII. IN WHICH JOSEPH ROULETABILLE APPEARS IN ALL HIS GLORY
XXVIII. IN WHICH IT IS PROVED THAT ONE DOES NOT ALWAYS THINK OF EVERYTHING