Gaboriau was the first French novelist to write detective novels. His character Monsieur Lecog, private detective, first appeared in the novel, The Widow Lerouge. The novel begins: The following item appeared in the evening journals of Paris, dated Tuesday, February 28, 18-, under the head of City News: There was great consternation this morning in the banking and financial centers, caused by a daring robbery at the house of one of our eminent money-spinners, M. Andre Fauvel. The bold and skillful depredators by some means entered the banking establishment, where they forced a patent lock of a safe considered impregnable, and made themselves masters of the enormous sum of 350,000 francs in notes of the Bank of France. There are light spots on a few pages. See other titles by this author available from Kessinger Publishing.