MONSIEUR LECOQ (1865-1868) A NEGLECTED PRE-SHERLOCK HOLMES DETECTIVE

MONSIEUR LECOQ – This French detective, who worked for the Surete, was created by France’s Emile Gaboriau, a former secretary of THE Paul Feval, the famed writer. The Gaboriau novels featuring Lecoq (whose first name was never revealed, like Columbo) all came out in the 1860s, making him one of the western world’s Big Three fictional detectives who came BEFORE Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes in 1887.

The other two, of course, are Auguste Dupin (1841) and Nick Carter (1886). Like Monsieur Lecoq, Dupin and Carter were among the figures depicted in individual episodes of Les Grands Detectives (1975) on French television. Here are the novels that Emile Gaboriau wrote featuring this brilliant procedural detective.

L’AFFAIRE LEROUGE (serialized in 1865, novelized in 1866) – This novel, set in 1862, depicted Lecoq as an assistant detective who was refining his trade with the help of another Gaboriau detective named Tabaret. In this story alone, Lecoq is a figurative Archie Goodwin to the less mobile Tabaret’s Nero Wolfe.  

The widow Claudine Lerouge is found murdered in her home but the killer is not known. Tabaret and his supporting detective Lecoq investigate and must sift through clues regarding Lerouge’s mysterious past involving false identities and illegal child swapping.

When an innocent man gets arrested for Claudine’s murder, Tabaret and Lecoq step up their efforts to nab the real killer and prevent a miscarriage of justice. This novel became an enormous hit.      

LE CRIME D’ORCIVAL (1867) – This novel was set in 1863 and depicted Surete detective Lecoq working on his own in a murder case. Near Chateau d’Orcival the Countess of Tremorel is discovered murdered and her husband the Count has disappeared.

Lecoq’s deductive powers enable him to determine that the presumed murder scene and ransacking of the chateau were staged and that neither the Count nor the Countess actually slept in their home the previous night. Multiple wine glasses were set up to give the impression that several guests had been in Orcival as further misdirection by the real murderer.

Our detective also reveals that a beachside fight was similarly staged to encourage a false timeline of events surrounding the murder. Clocks in the chateau were set back to add to the deceptions.

LE DOSSIER NO. 113 (1867) – Set in 1864. Monsieur Lecoq has his own detective sidekick in this tale – Monsieur Fanferlot (the war on first names continued). A bank owned by Andre Fauvel on Rue de Provence is robbed of 300,000 francs. The money was stolen out of the safe.

Bank employee Prosper Bertomy is arrested but Lecoq later releases him while continuing his investigation. Ultimately, our detective determines that the robbery is tied into a decades-old crime and he can solve both at once.

LES ESCLAVES DE PARIS (1868) – This story was set in 1867 and features Lecoq investigating the disappearance of a wealthy young woman. The mystery leads the Surete detective to an underground organization of criminals called the Slaves of Paris.

That group is like a less rich and connected version of les Habits Noirs and provides new challenges for Lecoq. Human trafficking and more. 

MONSIEUR LECOQ (1868) – Gaboriau’s final Lecoq novel is set the earliest – 1859. It was a flashback novel depicting a younger Lecoq solving his first great case as a French police detective.

The mystery centered around a triple murder during a brawl at a seedy bar in Paris. False identities and romantic intrigues figured into this tale regarding feuding political families.

*** Other authors would begin using the Lecoq character, but these mysteries are the actual canon by the detective’s creator.