The Secret of the Night

Young journalist and amateur detective Joseph Rouletabille travels to St. Petersburg to shield General Trebassof, a Russian officer marked for death by revolutionary assassins. Someone inside the general’s own household is feeding the plotters, and the threats keep coming even behind locked doors and armed guards. Gaston Leroux, best known for The Phantom of the Opera, builds the tension around a sealed-house puzzle and the paranoia of a court under siege, blending patient detective work with the political violence of pre-revolutionary Russia. One of several cases for Rouletabille, the reporter-sleuth Leroux created while Sherlock Holmes fever was still high, it moves quickly and keeps its solution hidden until the final pages. A satisfying pick for anyone who likes a clever mystery wrapped in danger. Read it free as a PDF and EPUB.