Monsieur Lecoq is a detective novel written by Emile Gaboriau and first published in 1869. The book tells the story of a bright young man, Monsieur Lecoq, solving his first case as a Paris' police officer. He and his colleagues are patrolling the city on a Sunday night when they hear screaming from a bar. There, they see a man holding a gun and three other men, two dead and one dying. Lecoq's boss immediately passes the case to the judges without thinking too much. However, Lecoq suspects that there is more to this case than his boss thinks. He then starts his own investigation with his new friend, Father Absinthe, a senior obedient police officer to uncover the truth behind the case.

I really like this book. At first, I thought this would be like another Sherlock Holmes' story, but I was wrong. The main character, Lecoq, is the key difference here. Even though he's smart, he's still young, inexperienced, and super emotional. In this book, he's pitted against one of the best antagonists I've seen in detective novels. His opponent mercilessly gets the upper hand each time our hero does something. And the ending is one hell of a punch in the gut. Absolutely fitting of such a story. I wish I could read more of Lecoq's stories in the future.