The Red Lottery Ticket

A stranger drops a pocket-book into a Paris cab, interrupting the ambitions of two young men who hope wealthy marriages will rescue their finances. George Caumont studies law, while his friend Adhémar de Puymirol is expected to become a doctor. On their way to a lunch celebrating a friend's approaching marriage, they discover lottery tickets and unsigned letters in the unexpected package. George sees grounds for suspicion; Adhémar wants to keep the papers and learn who wrote them.

Fortuné Du Boisgobey builds this detective novel around private correspondence, social connections and the uncertainty behind outward appearances. George's worry over his friend's unexplained night away sits alongside conversations about his own approaching wedding. Paris streets, restaurant gatherings and family introductions give the mystery a setting where hopes of advancement meet personal anxieties. Readers interested in French crime fiction can follow how an apparently casual encounter unsettles these young men's plans.