The Mystery of the Yellow Room

The central puzzle concerns an attack on Mathilde Stangerson inside a room that appears sealed from within. Reporter Joseph Rouletabille reconstructs the timing and physical evidence to explain how the apparent impossibility was created.

Joseph Rouletabille conducts his own investigation while the celebrated detective Frederic Larsan pursues a competing theory. Their rivalry turns the novel into a contest between Rouletabille's reasoning and the official interpretation of the evidence.

Yes. Gaston Leroux introduced Rouletabille in this 1907 novel and continued his adventures in The Perfume of the Lady in Black.

The book established an influential model for presenting a seemingly impossible crime and then resolving it through physical clues and logical reconstruction. Later locked-room writers, including John Dickson Carr, worked within the tradition that Leroux helped define.