3. The Murders in the Rue Morgue, by Edgar Allan Poe

OK, this one is called the first detective novel. Let's see how far I get!

intro: the analyst derives pleasure from even the most trivial occupations bringing his talent into play. He is fond of enigmas, of conundrums, of hieroglyphics; exhibiting in his solutions of each a degree of acumen which appears to the ordinary apprehension præternatural.

Intro

Paris: Monsieur C. Auguste Dupin. From illustrious family, but reduced to poverty
But his creditors allowed him enough to live on. He loved books.

The writer has more money, and they live together in "a time-eaten and grotesque mansion, long deserted through superstitions into which we did not inquire, and tottering to its fall in a retired and desolate portion of the Faubourg St. Germain".

Dupin could watch what you look at and hence deduce your train of thought.

The crime

Newspaper (the “Gazette des Tribunaux,”)
“EXTRAORDINARY MURDERS
3AM
shrieks from the fourth story of a house in the Rue Morgue
occupied by Madame L’Espanaye, and her daughter Camille L’Espanaye.
Gendarmes broke in
two or more rough voices from upper part of the house.
large back chamber in the fourth story, locked, key on inside
apartment was in the wildest disorder
On a chair lay a razor, besmeared with blood.
On the hearth were two or three long and thick tresses of grey human hair, also dabbled in blood, and seeming to have been pulled out by the roots.
Upon the floor were found four Napoleons, an ear-ring of topaz, three large silver spoons, three smaller of métal d’Alger, and two bags, containing nearly four thousand francs in gold.
drawers had been searched but many articles still remained in them.
A small iron safe was open and empty except for a few papers.
Corpse of daughter had been forced up the chimney.
Apparently throttled to death.
Paved yard behind: Corpse of mother, throat cut so that head fell off when moved. Body mutilated.

Next day's papers:
Said that mother told fortunes for a living, but nobody ever saw people enter
 (except woman for laundry).
Was reputed to have money put by.
No servants. No furniture except in the fourth story: did not like to be around people.
Male voice at crime was French.
Higher voice (not the victims). Different witnesses had different experience of languages and disagreed over what it was. Not THEIR language. Harsh, not shrill.

3 days earlier, woman withdrew 4000 francs.
Street very quiet
3-5 minutes for the men to disappear

Adolphe Le Bon had been arrested and imprisoned—although no real evidence against him.

Dupin's deductions

Dupin realised the window was the only way out.
The police could not open it, but Dupin deduced there had to be a hidden spring, and he found it.

The other window had a similar spring.
Both windows seemed nailed shut, but one nail was deceptive: the head and main part were broken. Nobody had tried it because they did not know of the hidden spring. So they assumed the nail (not the hidden spring) was holding the window shut. They knew the nail would not come out: they did not know that it would slide up once the window spring was released.

Dupin's genius was to know that the window was the only possible escape, and therefore there had to be some hidden catch so that the windows opened.

Outside the window: lighting rod and unusual shutters made climbing easy.

The murderer:

• Non-human strength. Forcing body up chimney so that it took five people to remove her. And tearing out thick bunch of hair by its roots.
• Climbing down would take extreme agility and strength.
• Nobody of any country can recognise words from the second person.
• And the wild mess
• And the money was not taken, so, lack of motive.
• And forcing up a chimney is not a human thing: why do that??

= non-human, non human, non human. So look for ape trainer.

+ found non-human hair among the carnage, and shape of hand print

+ found knot of ribbon: knot of  akind Maltese sailors use. (also good for game?)

Action: (good for game): place ad in paper that the suspect is likely to read (Le Monde, read by businessmen and shipping: sailors would carry the orangutan. Sherlock Holmes does the same thing!
Local police don't like being made to look fools but have no choice but to cooperate.