The Blackmailers: Dossier No. 113 (Detective Club Crime Classics) (The Detective Story Club)

About this book

Monsieur Lecoq of the French Sret is called to investigate a Bank Robbery in one of the worlds first detective novels widely credited as the inspiration for Sherlock Holmes. A sensational bank robbery of 350 000 francs is the talk of Paris with suspicion falling immediately upon Prosper Bertomy the young cashier whose extravagant living has been the subject of gossip among his friends. As a network of deceit blackmail murder and villainy closes around Prosper and his lover Madeleine Monsieur Lecoq of the French Sret embarks on a daring investigation to prove the young mans innocence in the face of damning evidence and discover the truth behind an otherwise impossible crime. mile Gaboriau is widely regarded as Frances greatest detective writer and a true pioneer of the genre. He created the archetypal detective Monsieur Lecoq who appeared as a supporting character in LAffaire Lerouge in 1866 and took centre-stage the following year in Le Dossier No.113 published in English as The Blackmailers. A master of disguise and guile the stylish Lecoq appeared in only five novels before Gaboriaus death in 1873 aged 40 having created the template for his natural successor Sherlock Holmes. This detective Story Club classic is introduced by detective fiction expert and researcher Richard Dalby who examines the work of the Frenchman frequently credited as the creator of the modern detective story.