Mystery of the Yellow Room

Written by Gaston Leroux

Narrated by LibriVox Community

This crime novel was possibly the first to involve a 'locked room mystery', in which an attempted murder takes place, but with no obvious way for the perpetrator to have escaped. The author, Gaston Leroux, is better known as the author of The Phantom of the Opera: prepare to feel the hairs standing up on the back of your neck...
(Summary by Stuart Bell)

• Language: English
• Publisher: LibriVox
• Release date: Aug 25, 2014

Gaston Leroux

Gaston Leroux (1868-1927) was a French journalist and writer of detective fiction. Born in Paris, Leroux attended school in Normandy before returning to his home city to complete a degree in law. After squandering his inheritance, he began working as a court reporter and theater critic to avoid bankruptcy. As a journalist, Leroux earned a reputation as a leading international correspondent, particularly for his reporting on the 1905 Russian Revolution. In 1907, Leroux switched careers in order to become a professional fiction writer, focusing predominately on novels that could be turned into film scripts. With such novels as The Mystery of the Yellow Room (1908), Leroux established himself as a leading figure in detective fiction, eventually earning himself the title of Chevalier in the Legion of Honor, France’s highest award for merit. The Phantom of the Opera (1910), his most famous work, has been adapted countless times for theater, television, and film, most notably by Andrew Lloyd Webber in his 1986 musical of the same name.