The Domesticity of Detectives by G.K. Chesterton

I have just been entertaining myself with the last sensational story by the author of _The Yellow Room_, which was probably the best detective tale of our time, except Mr. Bentley's admirable novel, _Trent's Last Case_. The name of the author of _The Yellow Room_ is Gaston Leroux; I have sometimes wondered whether it is the alternative _nom de plume_ of the writer called Maurice Leblanc who gives us the stories about Arsène Lupin, the gentleman burglar. There would be something very symmetrical in the inversion by which the red gentleman always writes about a detective, and the white gentleman always writes about a criminal. But I have no serious reason to suppose the red and white combination to be anything but a coincidence; and the tales are of two rather different types. Those of Gaston the Red are more strictly of the type of the mystery story, in the sense of resolving a single and central mystery.

Those of Maurice the White are more properly adventure stories, in the sense of resolving a rapid succession of immediate difficulties.