True Crime Readers November Event

This month we're reading Edgar Allan Poe’s *The Mystery of Marie Rogêt (1842–43) a detective story featuring his analytical hero C. Auguste Dupin, the same character from The Murders in the Rue Morgue (which we read about two years ago). There is a historical basis to the story: the 1841 murder of Mary Cecilia Rogers, a New York cigar-shop girl whose death drew sensational press coverage. Poe transposes the events to Paris, renaming her Marie Rogêt. When Marie’s body is found floating in the Seine, newspapers publish conflicting theories. Dupin, using only these reports, conducts a purely logical investigation, dissecting inconsistencies and probabilities to reconstruct what likely happened. Poe’s story is considered the first detective story and the creation of new genre, blending journalism and detective reasoning. He created a brilliant, flawed crime fighter, Dupin, who sets his wits and rational analysis against adversaries. Poe was the creative inspiration for distinctive mystery writers such as Doyle and Christie. The Mystery of Marie Roget is a blend of fact and fiction and is available on Amazon, the audiobook is on YouTube, and there are old podcasts (1953) in Classic Suspense #530 if you type The Mystery of Marie Roget in Podcast Search.