THE LEROUGE CASE

New York: Syndicate Trading Company. First Edition Thus. . Hardcover. Fair To Good/No Jacket. Gaboriau is generally credited with creation of the mystery-detective genre and the first detective to use facts and clues available to the reader to solve the crime. "The Lerouge Case," published serially in France in 1865 and '66 and immediately popular, featured an amateur sleuth, Tabaret, and introduced a young police detective, M. Lecoq, who impressed Arthur Conan Doyle and influenced the creation of Doyle's Sherlock Holmes. The novel involves the aristocracy, family secrets, illegimate children and murder. Lecoq became the protagonist of three later mysteries by Gaboriau. This Syndicate Trading Company copy (no copyright or publication date, circa 1885-90) is from one of several American publishers attempting to profit from Gaboriau's popularity, the title page noting it is one of "Gaboriau's Sensational Novels." About 5 1/4 x 7 1/2 inches, 307 pages in black cloth-covered boards embossed with a floral motif on the front cover and spine. "Gladstone Series" embossed in upper corner of front cover, gold title box with black lettering on spine. Boards show minimal surface and edge wear, with slightly bumped corners and spine ends and a tiny tear at bottom of spine. Front and back interior hinges are partially cracked and loosened. Binding appears firm. Pastedowns and end pages are stained and text is somewhat fragile and age-browned, especially in the margins. That said, the text is complete, basically clean and unmarked, with no significant flaws. An antique, a copy for collectors interested in mystery genre landmarks.