The investigations are frequently long—two years in straightforward cases is normal—but trials are mostly short. Witnesses are called and the evidence is rehearsed in court, but lengthy cross-examination in the British/American manner is rare. The case is presented by the public prosecutor, who goes by the title of Le Parquet (wooden floor) because he or she has to stand on the floor to argue the case before the (usually) three judges seated above them. The word Assizes comes from the French for seated (assises).
In France, as in Britain, the defendant is theoretically innocent until proven guilty but, in practice, there is a strong presumption of guilt if an examining magistrate, having weighed the evidence, recommends prosecution.
There is no right of habeas corpus in France. Investigating magistrates have a right (within limits) to imprison suspects for lengthy periods without trial, which can be a handy way of extracting evidence. Suspects can admit or deny their guilt, but their plea makes little difference to the nature of the investigation and trial. French jails are full of people who have not been charged.
Much of the leg-work is done by the police (in towns) or gendarmerie (in rural areas). Criminal matters are pursued by the judicial police (Police Judiciaire). Public order, including traffic control, is performed by the administrative police (Police Administrative).
Paris, needless to say, has its own police prefecture (Préfecture de Police de Paris), originally located at the legendary Quai des Orfèvres, the first home of the equally legendary Sûreté, the inspiration for the (even more legendary) Scotland Yard.
The two ranks of the Police Judiciaire mentioned in the story are commissaire (equivalent to superintendent) and brigadier (equivalent to sergeant).
As a tangentially-related piece of trivia, the nickname for arsenic in French is “poudre de succession”—inheritance powder.
APPENDIX II: THE FRENCH GOLDEN AGE
To my knowledge, there is no accepted definition of a French locked room Golden Age, but—despite the isolated activities of Gaston Leroux in 1907-08; Boileau-Narcejac as a team in the 1950s; Martin Méroy in the 1960s; and the one-man Golden Age of Paul Halter starting in the 1980s—it is hard to deny that the preponderance of authors and titles occurred between 1930 and 1948. Much of the information below comes from the excellent bibliography 1000 Chambres Closes, by Roland Lacourbe et al.
1930 saw the appearance of Pierre Véry’s Le Testament de Basil Crookes (The Testament of Basil Crookes), and 1948 was the year that Thomas Narcejac’s La Mort est du voyage (Death on Board) won the Grand Prix du Roman d’aventures, France’s international award for mystery fiction. (He and Boileau met at Narcejac’s award dinner.)
The period between those years saw three prolific authors: Maurice Leblanc, Noël Vindry and the Belgian Stanislas-André Steeman; Pierre Boileau and Thomas Narcejac writing separately; and many of what Roland Lacourbe calls “shooting stars”—authors who produced one or two books in a very short period, then disappeared from sight.
Maurice Leblanc is best known for his short stories featuring ArsèneLupin, but his gentleman thief also appears in two novels: La Barre-y-va (The Barre-y-va) in 1932, and La Femme aux deux sourires (The Woman with Two Smiles) in 1933.
Of Steeman’s more than thirty novels, five contained locked room puzzles: Six hommes morts (Six Dead Men) and La Nuit du 12 au 13 (The Night of the 12th and 13th) in 1931; Zéro (Zero) in 1932; L’Ennemi sans visage (The Enemy Without a Face) in 1934; and L’Infaillible Silas Lord (The Infallible Silas Lord) in 1938.
Vindry also wrote more than thirty novels, but is best known for his ten locked room mysteries, of which three—La Maison qui tue (The House That Kills) in 1932; La Bête hurlante (The Howling Beast) and Le Double Alibi (The Double Alibi), both in 1934—have already been published by LRI. Two other of his works: La Fuite des morts (The Vanishing Dead) in 1933 and À travers les murailles (Through the Walls) in 1937 are also very highly rated.
Pierre Boileau wrote La Pierre qui tremble (The Trembling Stone) in 1934; Le Repos de Bacchus (Bacchus in Repose), which won the Grand Prix du Roman d’aventures, in 1938; his masterpiece Six Crimes Sans Assassin (literally Six Crimes Without a Killer) in 1935; writing as Anicot, Un Assassin au chateau (A Killer in the Castle) in 1944; and L’Assassin vient les mains vides (The Killer Comes Empty-Handed) in 1945. In addition to the aforementioned La Mort est du voyage, Narcejac also wrote L’Assassin de Minuit (The Midnight Killer) in 1945.
Amongst the shooting stars are, in alphabetical order:
-Gaston Boca, who wrote four novels between 1933 and 1935, of which two, L’Ombre sur le jardin (The Shadow Over the Garden) in1933, and Les Invités de minuit (The Seventh Guest) in 1935, are regarded as early classics. The remaining two: Les Usines de l’effroi (The Terror Factories) in1934,and Le Dîner de Mantes (Dinner at Mantes) in 1935, both have weak solutions.
-Antoine Chollier who wrote Dossier n°7 (Dossier n°7) in 1946.
-Alexis Gensoul, who wrote L’Énigma de Tefaha (The Riddle of Tefaha); Gribouille est mort (Gribouille Is Dead); and—with Charles Grenier—La Mort vient de nulle part (Death out of Nowhere), all in 1945, whilst a conscript in the French army.
-Michel Herbert and EugèneWyl, who together wrote La Maison interdite (The Forbidden House) in 1932; and Le Crime derrière la porte (The Crime Behind the Door) in 1934.
-Marcel Lanteaume, whose Orage sur la Grande Semaine (Storm Over Festival Week) in 1944; Trompe-l’œil (Trompe-l’Œil) in 1946; and La Treizième balle (The Thirteenth Bullet) in 1948, were all written whilst he was a prisoner-of-war in a German concentration camp, and published later.
-Roch de Santa-Maria who wrote Pendu
