The Triumphs of Eugene Valmont

dated and dull...for a rainy week...

OK , but not my favorite. Many short stories.

Easy to read short stories but very OTT. Quite dated.

"The Triumphs of Eugène Valmont" (1906) is a collection of stories by the British/Canadian writer Robert Barr who worked for "The Detroit Free Press" before immigrating to England. Valmont is a French former police official working as a private detective in London. There are eight stories (triumphs, more or less) in all, dealing with a variety of mysteries: stolen spoons, hidden fortunes, club-footed ghosts, a train robber named Wyoming Ed, etc. One story features anarchists, the terrorists of a hundred years ago. This edition also contains two Holmes parodies. The first ("The Adventures of Sherlaw Kombs") is pretty funny. Given that Valmont is French (and Barr himself was in his thirties when he moved to England) the stories often provide an outsider's reflections on the character of the British, especially in contrast to the French. The book is worth looking into. The stories are of varying quality, but they're independent of one another, and so it's possible to read one or read all eight if you enjoyed the one.

Obviously comparable to Holmes but much closer to a fallible Poirot. Entertaining because of his failings, Valmont becomes human. Enjoyable.