Batgrl (Book Data Kept Elsewhere)’s Reviews > Monsieur Lecoq > Status Update

Oh no you didn't!!! Dammit, that is not an ending. ... OK now must see which is the next Lecoq book...

I think I've figured out why I'm enjoying this - Lecoq is clever, but he's far from the only clever one in his world. Also he makes mistakes and is still learning the job. There's a humility in him that I like. .... Meanwhile we have yet to unmask the Big Bad....

This... It's... I am now stunned. An amateur detective pops up, well off, taken on detection for enjoyment. And Lecoq knows him. And he uses deduction and has solved a case involving other wealthy folk. And of course he reminds me of someone...

OK this is a really good chase scene - must remember to see if this has been made into a film, because all of this part seems very cinematic.

I keep telling myself that I'll stop after one more page - and oops I've fallen into A Chase Scene. So now I must keep going to see if there's a Catch or an Escape.

Poor Lecoq is now having to run all over to try and track the owner of a single earring. In a Holmes story this would be told in 2 paragraphs tops. But Lecoq, he not only does oodles of leg work, but also has been mocked more than once by his nemesis, not to mention his boss...

"A prisoner's examination always begins with these questions as to individuality, which gives both the magistrate and the culprit time to study each other, to try, as it were, each other's strength, before joining in a serious struggle; just as two duelists, about to engage in mortal combat, first try a few passes with the foils."

Lecoq likes to make up axioms, which he apparently never tells anyone else. They also seem very philosophical (can't tell if he's riffing on some famous quote): "Distrust all circumstances that seem to favor your secret wishes."

There, just quoted a nice big chunk of the section on the Morgue (in the review), so now anyone who wants can be just as ghoulish as those Parisians, and have a peek at the scenery. (I can say nothing, I think this section is fascinating. Not that I'd want to be there myself, what with the smell.)

I should note here that in the 1900s Paris when there were bodies that weren't identified the Morgue would place them out on slabs and allow the public to view them. This was in hopes of identification - but it was also a place the public could get a ghoulish thrill for free. (And of course I can't remember what book I read this in. Sorry.)