Sign in with Facebook
90th out of 181 books
—
50 voters
File No. 113 (Monsieur Lecoq #3)
Emile Gaboriau is frequently credited with being the creator of the modern detective story. He drew on the 40 years of slow evolution of the crime story, following Edgar Allen Poe in the United States, and writers such as Paul Feval, Eugene Sue, Alexandre Dumas the elder, and Honore de Balzac in France, writing popular literature for the masses. Violence, lies, adultery, d...more
Paperback, 412 pages
Published
January 1st 2010
by Distinction Press
(first published 1867)
Friend Reviews
To see what your friends thought of this book,
please sign up.
More lists with this book...
Community Reviews
(showing
1-30
of
66)
Before Arthur Conan Doyle was Emile Gaboriau. This detective novel is a rollicking good read featuring Inspector Lecoq who out-Sherlocks Sherlock Holmes a couple of decades before A Study in Scarlet debuted in 1887. An ingenious plot centered around a bank robbery and a young couple in love who go too far and suffer lifelong regrets pits some very attractive characters against the evil machinations of the Marquis de Clameran and the handsome but spurious Raoul Lagors. In the end young love trium...more
A Monsieur Lecoq story.
All Paris is talking about the daring robbery of three hundred and fifty thousand francs from the safe of eminent banker, Andre Fauvel. Apparently only two persons had means and opportunity, Monsieur Fauvel himself, and his trusted employee Prosper Bertomy. The banker is crushed spiritually to contemplate that Prosper has so betrayed him, but yet he knows that he did not take his own money. Madame Fauvel and their niece, Madeleine, whom it was presumed at one time would m...more
All Paris is talking about the daring robbery of three hundred and fifty thousand francs from the safe of eminent banker, Andre Fauvel. Apparently only two persons had means and opportunity, Monsieur Fauvel himself, and his trusted employee Prosper Bertomy. The banker is crushed spiritually to contemplate that Prosper has so betrayed him, but yet he knows that he did not take his own money. Madame Fauvel and their niece, Madeleine, whom it was presumed at one time would m...more
If you stick with the detective, Lecoq, and the main action of this mystery, then File No. 113 by Émile Gaboriau beats The Mystery of the Yellow Room by Gaston Leroux hands down in the category of French detective novels. Not nearly as well-known as the ground-breaking locked room mystery of Leroux, File No. 113 features a likeable detective, Monsieur Lecoq, who is as adept at the art of disguise as Holmes and more connected with human emotion than his British counterpart. (And I say that as a f...more
This is the fourth or fifth Gaboriau mystery I've read, and I've noticed a pattern: A crime is committed, the mystery deepens until the middle of the book, when it jumps a few decades into the past to reveal the original crime (invariably committed by a member of the aristocracy still pissed off by the French Revolution that severely reduced the family's fortune and prestige), then the twists and turns which lead to the crime that started the book, and a neat and tidy conclusion that nicely ties...more
Lecoq is fly; the middle of the book, in which he disappears entirely, is mucky.
Gaboriau is excellent at plotting; he always manages a surprise or two. In this book, there are quite a few clever turns. But, when Lecoq disappears the book usually suffers. File 113 can drone on and on, with too many pages of narrative. Skip 'em, and keep the pace up.
Great plot, but all his books are too wordy.
Before Sherlock Holmes, there was M. LeCoq. Gaboriau gives us a master of disguise in a pretty good detective novel. LeCoq seems to be everywhere at once and can be pretty amusing. This particular case bogs down a little bit on the telling of the backstory, but I can see where it was necessary. I will definitely seek out another of his adventures.
May 07, 2013
Ajaykumar Singh
marked it as to-read
May 04, 2013
Carol
marked it as to-read
Feb 22, 2013
Gary
marked it as to-read
Feb 20, 2013
Brian Cook
is currently reading it
Jan 27, 2013
Juan Carlos
marked it as to-read
Jan 17, 2013
George Powell
marked it as to-read
Jan 03, 2013
Johan
added it
Dec 24, 2012
Christian
marked it as to-read
Dec 04, 2012
Catherine
marked it as to-read
There are no discussion topics on this book yet.
Be the first to start one »
![The Lecoq Edition [Of Gaboriau's Works] (Volume 3); File Number 113](http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1347737994s/9770642.jpg)
French writer of detective fiction
More about Émile Gaboriau...
Share This Book
No trivia or quizzes yet. Add some now »
“A father is the one friend upon whom we can always rely. In the hour of need, when all else fails, we remember him upon whose knees we sat when children, and who soothed our sorrows; and even though he may be unable to assist us, his mere presence serves to comfort and strengthen us.”
—
14 people liked it
“Alas! we must suffer ourselves before we can feel for others.”
—
3 people liked it
More quotes…
