Publisher's Synopsis
The Murders in the Rue Morgue
Madame L'Espanaye and her daughter, Camille, have been found murdered at their home in the Rue Morgue (Paris). Camille's body was found stuffed upside down in the chimney of a fourth-floor, securely locked apartment, while her mother was found brutally beaten in a backyard with her throat cut so deep that her head fell off when the body was moved.
Following sensational headlines in the newspapers around Paris, C. Auguste Dupin, often cited as the first fictional "detective," uses abductive reasoning to solve the murders. Dupin became the prototype for future fictional detectives, including Sherlock Holmes and Hercule Poirot.
The Mystery of Marie Roget
Cited as the first true crime murder mystery, C. Auguste Dupin uses facts published in various newspapers to solve the murder of Marie Rogêt, a perfume saleswoman who is found floating in the Seine. Was it a group of no-good scoundrels, someone close to the victim, or just a random criminal act?
The Mystery of Marie Roget is based on the real-life murder of Mary Cecilia Rogers, a tobacco saleswoman who was found floating in the Hudson River on July 28, 1841. Many theories were investigated, but unfortunately, the murder of the "beautiful cigar girl" was never solved.
