The Mystery of the Yellow Room (1907) by Gaston Leroux: A Review

💛 The Mystery of the Yellow Room is where we are first introduced to Gaston Leroux' genius detective, young (he's only 18 years old) Joseph Rouletabille. Like Leroux, Rouletabille is a journalist. But his great logical thinking will soon earn him a new reputation: a great detective. Just like all great fictional detectives, such as Holmes or Poirot, this story was narrated by Rouletabille's sidekick, a lawyer called Jean Sainclair.

💛 The titular yellow room is Mademoiselle Mathilde Stangerson's bedroom at the Chateau Glandier, where she was assisting her father, Professor Joseph Stangerson in his scientific works, that night. At midnight Mademoiselle resigned to her bedroom, locking the door that opens to the laboratory, where her father was still working, and their loyal old servant "Father" Jacques was sitting quietly.

💛 Then the strangest thing happened - it happened so suddenly that the two men were astonished. Loud voices came from inside the room: people struggling, furniture tumbling, Mademoiselle's yelling 'help!', and there's even gun shots. The two men frantically tried to open the window from outside (it's locked), then force-opened the locked door. When they were able to enter, what they found was too impossible. No one was in the room, except Mathilde, lying unconsciously on the floor, bloody hand marks on the wall. Who had attacked her? Why? But most importantly, how did he escape (the door opens to the laboratory is the only door to the bedroom, and there's no chimney)? Even the Police couldn't come to any suggestion.

💛 Joseph Rouletabille is intrigued by this strange incident, and together with Sainclair goes to Glandier to investigate. Mathilde's fiancé is there, and only by uttering a strange sentence to him, Rouletabille is permitted to enter the chateau - something that puzzles Sainclair, much as Poirot often puzzles Hastings with his cryptical remarks.

💛 Formal investigation is run by a top police detective Frederic Larsan from Surrete. He reminded me much of Poirot's nemesis, also from Surrete: Giraud. And like Poirot, Rouletabille also mocks him for not having a great logical thinking, though he works thoroughly on the ground finding clues. Although Rouletabille is definitely humbler than Poirot - he occasionally admires his rival's way - he is as confident as Poirot, that he will win the race.

💛 This is probably one of the first locked room mysteries ever written, and it provides quite a logical challenge for the reader, as much as the detectives. Besides the characters I mentioned above, there are also a grumpy innkeeper, his pretty wife, two concierges, and a flirtatious gamekeeper.

💛 After the first incident, there are two stranger incidents still - one of which is more serious attempt to take Mathilde's life, and there's one more murder. Larsan accused the fiancé, Robert Darzac, who had feeble alibi during those incidents, but Rouletabille disagrees. His explanation in the end causes great astonishment, and I couldn't guess it either!

💛 All in all, it is a satisfying mystery - a good portion of healthy exercise of one's grey cells, wrapped in a fast-paced thriller, with generous sprinkles of exciting actions.

Rating: 4 / 5

 

My 1st book for Paris in July 2023

Shelf Control #3: Hello? Is Anybody There? by Jostein Gaarder

Shelf Control is a weekly feature created by Lisa at Bookshelf Fantasies, and celebrates the books waiting to be read on your TBR piles/mountains. Since early January 2023, Shelf Control has moved base to Literary Potpourri.

My pick this time is:

Hello? Is Anybody There? by Jostein Gaarder

Jostein Gaarder is a Norwegian novelist, short stories, and children books writer. His books mostly aim to educate children or young adult on philosophy. His most famous work is Sophie's World (also my favorite). I have read most of Gaarder's other books too: The Solitaire Mystery (another favorite), The World According to Anna, Through A Glass Darkly, Vita Brevis, The Orange Girl, Maya, The Ringmaster's Daughter, and his Christmas theme book: The Christmas Mystery.

Hello? Is Anybody There? is another philosophy-theme book for children. It's on my TBR in Google Playbook, though I don't remember buying it! 🙃

Summary from Goodreads:
"While waiting for the birth of his baby brother, Joe is visited by a strange child from another planet, and the two discover that they, and their planets, share many similarities as well as differences."

I think this will provide a fun reading; a cute yet a little thought provoking story, without highbrow lectures on philosophy.

Have you read this book? Or any of Gaarder's?

 

Evil Under the Sun by Agatha Christie: A Re-read

⛱ Poirot is having a holiday at a beach side hotel in Devon. Among his fellow guests, is Arlena Marshall, the kind of beautiful flirtatious woman, to whom men usually drawn to, just like moth to light. She stays at the hotel with her husband, Captain Marshal, and her step daughter, Linda Marshall.

⛱ It's no secret to everyone (including Captain Marshall) that Patrick Redfern is Arlena's current "victim". Though he is staying with his wife Christine, he is clearly infatuated with Arlena. Another guest, a Reverend, tells Poirot that he can strongly feels that evil is in the air - evil under the sun.

⛱ It's no surprise to anyone, really, when one day Arlena is found dead, strangled. She was having a secret rendezvous at Pixy Cove that morning, and never returns. There's no doubt that she was murdered by one of her fellow hotel guests - a man (due to the strangulation), but the question is, which one?

⛱ Along the investigation run by Inspector Colgate and Poirot, it is soon revealed that the case isn't quite straightforward as they've been expecting. Both the husband and the lover (the immediate suspects) had a cast iron alibi. Moreover, there are also other possibilities of motive: drug smuggling is one of them.

⛱ Once again, Hercule Poirot triumphantly solved the mystery, thanks to his attention to tiny little - seemingly - irrelevant details; such as a bottle tossed out of a window, or water running while no one was having a bath. I loved his method of collecting these inexplicable things as pieces of puzzle, and when one of them is answered, he sees then in his head how the pieces of the puzzle placed snugly one by one to its correct place, revealing to him the complete image of what had been happening.

⛱ Evil Under the Sun is just another of Christie's satisfying whodunnit crime novel. It has the summer holiday vibe, red herrings, and mathematically precision of the murder, great deduction from Poirot, and unexpected solution. All of the reasons why we keep reading the Golden Age crime fiction!

Rating: 4,5 / 5

This book counts for British Crime Classics Challenge 2023

For Bingo Card: Set on an Island

For Monthly Theme: Favorite Detective: Hercule Poirot

Six Degrees of Separation, from Time Shelter to The Girl, the Dog, and the Writer in Provence

Six Degrees of Separation is a monthly meme, now hosted by Kate @ books are my favorite and best.

On the first Saturday of every month, a book is chosen as a starting point and linked to six other books to form a chain. Readers and bloggers are invited to join in by creating their own ‘chain’ leading from the selected book.

This month we start from:

0. Time Shelter by Georgi Gospodinov

"In Time Shelter, an enigmatic flâneur named Gaustine opens a “clinic for the past” that offers a promising treatment for Alzheimer’s sufferers: each floor reproduces a decade in minute detail, transporting patients back in time. As Gaustine’s assistant, the unnamed narrator is tasked with collecting the flotsam and jetsam of the past, from 1960s furniture and 1940s shirt buttons to scents and even afternoon light. But as the rooms become more convincing, an increasing number of healthy people seek out the clinic as a “time shelter”—a development that results in an unexpected conundrum when the past begins to invade the present. Intricately crafted, and eloquently translated by Angela Rodel, Time Shelter announces Gospodinov to American readers as an essential voice in international literature." - Goodreads

As was with most of Six Degree Separation I've worked so far, this is a book I have not read, and not of my cup of tea either. For this chain I'll go the easy way by choosing the word from the title: Time, and my first chain is a book I have read so long ago...

1. A Time to Kill by John Grisham

"The life of a ten-year-old girl is shattered by two drunken and remorseless young men. The mostly white town reacts with shock and horror at the inhuman crime. That is, until her black father acquires an assault rifle and takes matters into his hands. For ten days, as burning crosses and the crack of sniper fire spread through the streets of Clanton, the nation sits spellbound as young defense attorney Jake Brigance struggles to save his client's life, and then his own." - Goodreads

It was Grisham during his most glorious days - more than thirty years ago (how time flew by!) Twenty four years after, Grisham published its sequel:

2. Sycamore Row by John Grisham

"Seth Hubbard is a wealthy man dying of lung cancer. He trusts no one. Before he hangs himself from a sycamore tree, Hubbard leaves a new, handwritten, will. It is an act that drags his adult children, his black maid, and Jake into a conflict as riveting and dramatic as the murder trial that made Brigance one of Ford County's most notorious citizens, just three years earlier. The second will raises far more questions than it answers. Why would Hubbard leave nearly all of his fortune to his maid? Had chemotherapy and painkillers affected his ability to think clearly? And what does it all have to do with a piece of land once known as Sycamore Row?" - Goodreads

I forgot the story, but it's not nearly as good as the first book. For my next chain, I will use the word Row from the title, which links to...

3. Cannery Row by John Steinbeck

"So Cannery Row is about a few blocks of fish canneries in the harbour city of Monterey, California, drawn from Steinbeck's memories when he stayed there. This is a tale about its remarkable inhabitants. Who are they? Mostly, a bunch of good-for-nothings." - my review

As I have linked words from title in the first two, in this one, a phrase from my review of the previous book (in red bold letters) links to another review of another book (in blue bold letters):

4. Why didn't they ask Evans by Agatha Christie

"This is one of Christie's amateur detectives collection. Bobby Jones and Lady Frances "Frankie" Derwent remind me so much of Tommy and Tuppence, but they are more amateurish, more foolish than T&T, which make the story much lighter and more entertaining than thrilling. Bobby Jones is the fourth son of a conservative Vicar - by fourth means least expectation has ever been put on him by his father, who thinks he's lazy and good-for-nothing." – my review

Don't amateur detective partners add a sweet touch of romance in crime stories? My new favorite  is from this cozy mystery:

5. The Bookshop Murder by Merryn Allingham

“The start of a brand-new murder mystery series featuring bookshop owner Flora Steele and crime writer Jack Carrington.” – Goodreads - You can also check my review.

For the last chain, I pick another book I loved which has a lovely writer character in it:

6. The Girl, the Dog, and the Writer in Provence by Katrina Nannestad

"HE'S A VAGUE NOVELIST. SHE'S A SHY AND UNUSUAL CHILD. TOGETHER, THEY'RE TRAVELLING THE WORLD, ONE BOOK AT A TIME. Freja, Tobias and Finnegan are back for an all-new adventure through the countryside of Provence." - Goodreads


Does this chain seem too easy for you? I think so too. But I'm not in the right place at this moment for any complicated things, so I made it light and fun... compiling books I've loved to read.

Have you read those books? If you do #sixdegree, how it worked out for you this time?

 

Paris in July 2023 and 20 Books of Summer Update #1

(This post has been altered)

I have posted earlier that Paris in July might not be going on this year, but at very last moment, Emma @ Words and Peace has stepped up and took over as a host of this beloved event at her blog! Yayy!!

So, I have altered this post, and this will be my signing up post of #parisinjuly2023.

I plan to read:

- The Mystery of the Yellow Room by Gaston Leroux
- Letters From My Windmill by Alphonse Daudet
- The President’s Hat by Antoine Laurain

I am also doing British Crime Classics Challenge 2023, which is starting in July. For this, I’ve planned to read at least two books. Other than that, I might read one or two cozy mysteries as well, and also the book for #ClassicsClubSpin.

20 Books of Summer Update #1

📚 Books read until 30th June (6/10):

💚 Summer by Edith Wharton
💚 The Cat Saw Murder by Dolores Hitchens
💚 Aunts Aren't Gentlemen by P.G. Wodehouse
💚 Art Heists and Hairballs by Bailey Booth
💚 One by One They Disappeared by Moray Dalton
💚 The Bookshop Murder by Merryn Allingham

With the current pace, I think I'd be able to read 15 or even 20 books after all. Let's see..

📚 2023 Statistics

📊 Total books read so far: 26
📊 Total short stories read so far: 5
📊 Challenge progress:
* 2023 TBR Pile Challenge: 7
* 2023 Victorian Reading Challenge: 3
* 2023 Audiobook Challenge: 6

 

Throwback Thursday #2: The Siege by Helen Dunmore

Throwback Thursday is a monthly bookish meme hosted by Davida @ The Chocolate Lady's Book Review Blog every first Thursday of the month, where we are highlighting one of our previously published book reviews.

I see this as an opportunity to re-post (or translate posts originally published in Bahasa Indonesia) my old book reviews, previously posted in my old (now inactive) blogs.

For #ThrowbackThursday this week I picked a book I have read and review in July, 2018 - a compelling story of war and humanity.

The Siege by Helen Dunmore

💙 You could never really know what the word "starving" means if you have never been deprived of the food SOURCE. This novel by Helen Dumnore teaches you to always be grateful for every single day of your life.

💙 The Siege depicted the historical siege of Leningrad by German (Nazy) Army in World War II; the biggest prolonged siege in the history. The novel particularly focused on the most extreme part of the siege, i.e. the winter of September 1941 to February 1942. Food ration was down to only 125 grams bread per person per DAY. Can you imagine that? 125 grams for 24 hours! And when the temperature was down to -30 degree (Celsius); many people died from combination of starvation, malnutrition, and freeze. Food and fuel suddenly valued like gold, while money became worthless (you couldn't eat money no matter how rich you were!). The siege was prolonged until January 1944 (900 days in total), but at least a new access was available after the severe winter had passed, that food supply was gradually back to normal--food ration was still on, but at least they didn't have to starve.

💙 The central characters of this historical novel are the working class family: Anna Mikhailovna, a young woman who lives with her father and her little brother Kolya. Then Marina Petrovna, a former actress and a friend of Anna's father, came to stay with them just before the city was besieged. Another important character was Andrei, a medical student who helped Mikhail (Anna's father) in war, and so he and Anna met and soon lived each other. These four adults and a little boy was a portrayal of how the city heroically held on and refused to surrender to the Nazi (Hitler's plan was to raze the city to the ground--another method of genocide?).

💙 And so, amidst the famine, struggle of life, bombardment, and cannibalism (yes, there were some cases of starving people ate human flesh!), there grew love and hope, which I believe were two important keys of survival. From their heroic acts, I see humanity at its highest and strongest state, which no one could dream to destroy.

💙 Two thumbs up for Dunmore for writing so vivid and compelling story of war and humanity.

********

Have you read this book? Or any other of Dunmore's?
By the way, I have just found out that there is a sequel to this book, which was published in 2010 titled 'The Betrayal', though I don't know if I ever want to read it - it sounds too depressing (from the Goodreads review)

I'm Joining: British Crime Classics Challenge 2023

I have been a crime/mystery fiction aficionado since I was in junior high school. It all began with Enid Blyton’s, and continued with Agatha Christie’s. Until very recently I mostly read Christie's books - I am even working on an Agatha Christie Perpetual Reading Challenge; re-reading her novels. But this year I'm intending to read most of the rest of the Golden Age era books, as well as modern cozy mystery.

And that's why I'm very excited when Rekha from The Book Decoder announced that British Crime Classics Challenge 2023 will start next month! It will be a good opportunity for me to explore more of the Golden Age Detective writers.

The Rules:

1. Books must be written by a British Author
   NOTE: books by Brit author moved to other countries post birth/author born to Brit parents or during British rule are allowed
2. Books must be published on or before 1965
   NOTE: reprints are allowed

 
My plans:

• Reading at least 6 books (most probably more 😏) from July to December 2023.
• Doing the Bingo (yes, there is a bingo card to spice the challenge up!).
• Working with Monthly Themes whenever possible.

I will add books I read for this challenge here, with link to the reviews. And this will serve as my Master List:

1. Evil Under the Sun (Agatha Christie) - BINGO: Set on an Island
2. Heads You Lose (Christianna Brand) - BINGO: Closed Circle of Suspects
3. The Pleasure Cruise Mystery (Robin Forsythe) - BINGO: Mystery Set on Boat/Ship
4. The 12.30 from Croydon (Freeman Wills Croft) - BINGO: Death on Board: Aircraft
5. Murder in the Mill-Race (E.C.R. Lorac) - BINGO: Death by Drowning
6. The Body in the Library (Agatha Christie) - BINGO: Re-Read
7. The Crooked Wreath (Christianna Brand) - BINGO: Locked Room Mystery
8.

The Bingo Card, I’m aiming for the 5x5 (will keep updating along the way):

If you're interested to participate, just go over to Rekha's post.