"Never Confess!"

NOW AND THEN real life can be disappointing, especially in the area of detective work. While it's noteworthy when fictional detectives fail, actual detectives must accept that once in a while malefactors are going to escape justice. Émile Gaboriau's most famous creation would have to ruefully acknowledge as much if he were to read . . .

"Monsieur Lecoq in the Fact."

By Robert H. Sherard (1861-1943; HERE).

First appearance: T. P.'s Weekly, July 10, 1903.

Article (1 page).

Online at Hathi Trust (HERE).

     "Ratiocination and induction had nothing to do with this capture, which was as simple as a game of hare and hounds."

The French do crime fighting differently, as this turn-of-the-20th century piece shows; it also indicates that sometimes it's the size of the paycheck which determines how effectively crime is fought.

Typo: "on foot a best".

References and resources:

- Edward D. Hoch's review of Monsieur Lecoq (1868) is available on Steve Lewis's Mystery*File (HERE).

- Mike Grost devotes a subsection of his megasite to Gaboriau (HERE).

- Wikipedia has articles about the Sûreté (HERE), Monsieur Goron (HERE), and the criminals Pranzini (HERE; also HERE at Captured and Exposed), Prado (HERE), and Avinain (HERE).

- We've touched on French police procedure before (HERE) and (HERE).

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